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The  Bible  in  English  Literature 


The  Bible  in  English 
Literature  > 


By 

EDGAR   WHITAKER   WORK,    D.D. 

Author  of  **The  Fascination  of  the  Book,** 

**The  House  ofChimham,''  '*The  Folly  of 

the  Three  Wise  Men,''  etc. 


New  York         Chicago         Toronto 

Fleming    H.    Re  veil   Company 

London    and    Edinburgh 


Copyright,  i9»7,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York  :  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago  :  1 7  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto  :  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London  :  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:       100    Princes  Street 


To 

the  dear  memory 
of 

John  Stewart  Wor\ 

*  A  Golden  Lad '  whom.  God  needed 


FOREWORD 

THIS  volume  is  a  tribute  of  the  heart  to  the  well- 
loved  Book.  Nor  is  the  author  ashamed  to  be 
found  in  possession  of  the  hope  that  it  may 
help  to  enrich  the  love  of  other  hearts  for  the  same 
sacred  Book.  Surely  it  will  not  be  thought  unduly 
ambitious  to  believe  that  the  last  word  has  not  been 
said  about  the  influence  of  the  Bible.  Indeed  the  last 
word  never  can  be  said.  An  editorial  writer  in  one  of 
our  best  magazines  spoke  the  other  day  of  the  music  of 
the  Bible — "The  ear  of  our  mind  is  listening  for  a 
rhythm  more  subtle  than  that  of  accent  or  measured 
feet.**  That  was  finely  said — ^yet  there  will  be  other 
pens  in  other  days  that  will  write  even  finer  things 
than  this.  The  theme  does  not  come  to  an  end.  It 
runs  on  like  a  brook — forever.  Just  because  men's 
lives  are  always  unfolding,  changing,  growing,  there 
is  always  something  new  about  the  way  the  Book  of 
Life  touches  human  souls.  To-day  does  not  exhaust 
it:  to-morrow  its  touch  shall  be  something  stronger 
than  before.  Imaginative  minds  have  ever  dreamed  of 
a  treasure  that  gave  forth  "things  new  and  old."  The 
Master  did  but  put  this  dream  of  the  heart  in  words 
when  he  spoke  of  the  resourceful  householder.  After 
him  came  other  householders  like  Browning  with — 

"My  star  that  dartles  the  red  and  the  blue" — 

and  many  others  in  the  generations  who  have  looked 

7 


8  FOREWORD 

for  the  new  and  the  old.  Is  not  all  this  hunger  of 
the  soul  for  fruit  that  is  sufficient  for  all  the  changing 
scenes  and  ways  of  life  come  true  in  the  Word  ?  Not 
yet  has  any  desert  of  life  been  found  that  could  stop 
the  flowing  of  the  Fountain. 

It  gratifies  some  of  us  to  think  of  the  Temple  of 
Theology  just  as  the  Temple  of  Life,  and  to  feel  when 
we  take  this  Book  in  hand  that  it  is  speaking  down 
deep  into  life,  and  bidding  deep  answer  unto  deep  in 
echoes  that  live  on  through  the  years.  And  this  is 
why  the  Bible  has  left  so  great  a  mark  upon  our  liter- 
ature. When  men  write  in  the  most  real  of  ways, 
they  bare  their  souls  unto  God's  winds  of  grace  and 
power.  His  touch  of  destiny  is  upon  them.  It  is  the 
naked  soul  of  humanity  that  one  sees  in  the  most  vital 
areas  of  our  literature,  and  it  is  there — upon  the  sensi- 
tiveness of  men's  emotions,  consciences,  imaginations, 
aspirations — that  the  Bible  has  left  the  imprint  of  its 
power. 

The  subject  is  not  casual — it  is  nothing  incidental, 
nor  even  wholly  explicit.  It  is  implicit  in  the  pro- 
foundest  sense — it  is  close  to  the  beating  of  the  heart, 
and  the  flowing  of  the  blood.  For  we  believe  that 
English-speaking  people  possess  the  Bible  in  this  way, 
not  merely  in  outward  ways  and  customs,  but  in  the 
blood.  The  author  can  only  hope  that  he  has  suc- 
ceeded to  some  extent  in  making  this  clear  as  respects 
English  literature. 

A  portion  of  the  material  of  these  chapters  has  been 
used  from  time  to  time  in  lectures  before  institutions 
and  popular  assemblies.  The  plan  of  this  book  has 
required  careful  recasting,  and  great  enlargement  of 
the  material.    Many  pages  of  course  could  have  been 


FOREWORD  9 

filled  with  quotations  from  writers  in  prose  and  poetry 
who  have  drawn  upon  the  Bible.  The  author  has  pur- 
posely resisted  the  multitude  of  quotations.  In  the 
case  of  the  poets,  however,  it  seemed  wise  to  quote 
more  freely. 

E.  W.  W. 
New  York. 


CONTENTS 
I.    Introduction 15 

Purpose  and  Results — Providence  of  History 
— Constitution  of  the  English  Mind — Shaping 
of  Events. 

II.    The    Spirit    and    Tone    of    English 

Literature 25 

Language,  Style  and  Expression — Regulation 
of  Tone — Popular  Feeling — ^Vital  Experience 
— Genius  of  the  People. 

III.  The  Coming  of  the  Book 35 

Isle  of  Thanet — Augustine — King  Ethelbert — 
A  Rich  Gift. 

IV.  Early  Risers  of  Literature 41 

King  Edwin — Paulinus — Columba  and  Aidan — 
Cuthbert — Monastic  Schools — ^Aldhelm — The 
Psalms. 

V.    Scholar  and  Peasant 53 

Theodore — Benedict  B  iscop — Hadrian — ^Wilfrid 
— Northumbrian  Schools — Caedmon. 

VI.    An  Early  Biblical  Poet 62 

Cynewulf — An  Early  Tennyson — His  "  Christ." 

VII.    The  Father  of  English  Literature.  . .     72 

Eighth  Century — The  Venerable  Bede — Gospel  of 
John. 

VIII.    The  Teacher  of  Europe 79 

Alcuin — The  Christian  Schools — Study  of  the 
Bible. 

11 


1«  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

IX.    King  Alfred  and  the  Bible 87 

Beginnings  of  National  Literature — Translations 
—Place  of  the  Bible. 

X.    The  Holy  Grail 99 

Times  Before  the  Conquest — Dunstan — iBlfric's 
Homilies — Norman  Influence — ^Arthurian  Le- 
gend— The  Holy  Grail — Later  Adaptations. 

XI.    Religious  Drama iii 

Dramatic  Instinct — The  Church  and  Drama- 
Miracle  Plays — Biblical  Themes. 

XII.    Men  op  the  Threshold 122 

Chaucer — Langland — Wyclif. 

XIII.  English  Versions  and  Their  Influence  139 

Printing — New  Learning — Reformation — Wyclif 
— Tyndale — Changes  Wrought — Later  Versions 
— Popular  Enthusiasm — King  James'  Version. 

XIV.  Shakespeare  and  the  Bible 155 

Elizabethan  Age — Biblical  Atmosphere — Geneva 
Version — Abundant  References  in  the  Plays — 
Truths  of  Christianity. 

XV.    The  Puritans 173 

Misunderstood — Nourished  on  the  Bible — The 
Psalms — Heroic  Literature — The  Puritan  Heri- 
tage— John  Milton — ^John  Bunyan — New  Eng- 
land Piuitans  and  the  Bible. 

XVL    The  Bible  in  English  Prose 195 

Conversation — Oratory — Lincoln — Editorial  Writ- 
ers— Izaak  Walton  to  John  Ruskin — Carlyle — 
Lowell — English  Fiction — Book  Titles — Biblical 
Incidents — Biblical  Plots — Problem  Stories— 
"Scarlet  Letter."  ^ 


r 


I 


CONTENTS  IS 

PAGB 

XVII.    The  Bible  In  English  Poetry 217 

Wordsworth — Arnold — Spirituality  of  the  Poets — 
Browning — Tennyson — ^American  Poets — Whit- 
tier,  Longfellow — Sidney  Lanier — Christ  in  Lit- 
erature. 

XVIII.    Biblical  Doctrine  in  Literature 240 

Doctrine  of  God — Sin  and  Punishment — ^Atone- 
ment— Immortality — Prayer. 

XIX.  Biblical  Idealism  in  Literature 255 

Vision    and    Imagination — Awe    and    Mystery — 
— Longing  and  Passion — Reverence  and  Spirit- 
,  uality — Destiny  and  the  Future. 


Index 271 


I 


INTRODUCTION 
**My  masters,  there's  an  Old  Book  you  should  con." 

THE  remark  of  James  Anthony  Froude  that  "the 
Bible  is  in  and  of  itself  a  liberal  education," 
may  seem  to  some  a  mere  extravagance  of  a 
not  over-careful  historian.  But  to  the  student  of  Eng- 
lish literature  the  remark  will  seem  at  once  a  just  esti- 
mate of  a  historic  fact.  As  he  progresses  with  his 
study,  and  finds  himself  always  confronting  in  his 
own  mind  the  inquiry  as  to  the  sources  of  spiritual 
vision  and  power  in  our  literature,  he  will  return  again 
and  again  to  the  historian's  judgment  with  a  growing 
sense  of  its  interpretative  insight. 

Literature  cannot  flourish  without  religion.  Stop- 
ford  A.  Brooke  in  a  thoughtful  essay  writes — "The 
first  thing  we  want  for  the  sake  of  a  great  literature 
and  a  great  poetry  is  a  noble  religion  which  will  bear 
by  its  immaterial  truths  our  intellect,  conscience, 
emotions,  imagination,  and  spirit,  beyond  this  world; 
and  yet,  by  those  very  truths,  set  us  into  the  keenest 
activity  in  the  world  for  the  bettering  of  the  world, 
making  every  work,  and  above  all,  literature,  full  of 
a  spiritual  and  a  social  passion,  weighty  and  digni- 
fied by  spiritual  and  social  thought."^ 

From  the  beginning  Christianity  has  promoted 
literature.  Throughout  the  centuries  the  Christian 
faith  has  been  possessed  of  a  certain  "genius"  that 

*  Religion  in  Literature  and  Religion  in  Life,  p,  30, 
15 


16       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

has  proved  a  powerful  mental  stimulant.  It  has 
stirred  human  minds  to  unwonted  activity,  it  has 
crowded  human  thought  with  fresh  ideals  and  hopes, 
it  has  filled  human  imagination  with  visions  so  vast 
and  far-reaching  that  the  very  act  of  cherishing  these 
visions  has  enlarged  the  kingdom  of  the  mind.  No 
subject  so  profoundly  moves  the  mind  as  religion. 
Literature  is  its  natural  product.  The  New  Testament 
itself  was  the  product,  natural  and  irresistible,  of  the 
most  momentous  religious  movement  known  among 
men. 

It  is  proposed  in  these  pages  to  examine  the  effect 
of  the  Christian  mode  of  thought  and  life,  as  em- 
bodied in  a  Book,  upon  the  making  and  shaping  o£ 
English  literature.  Given  the  Bible  as  the  vehicle  of 
the  Christian  religion,  and  the  chief  instrument  of  its 
progress,  our  task  is  to  inquire  after  the  influence  of 
the  Bible  in  that  area  of  human  thought  where  Eng- 
lish-speaking peoples  have  recorded  their  judgments 
and  feelings  concerning  life.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  "the  making  of  many  books"  is  not  of  necessity 
the  creation  of  a  literature.  Literature  is  the  kind  of 
writing  that  frames  noble  and  useful  thought  in  forms 
that  excel.  Such  writing  links  itself  invariably  with 
religious  feeling.  The  influence  of  the  Bible  in  Eng- 
lish literature  is  thus  a  noteworthy  fact  in  human 
annals.  Our  theme  is  not  the  Bible  as  English  litera- 
ture, but  the  Bible  in  English  literature.^  We  shall  see 
as  we  proceed  how  the  Bible  has  colored  the  thought 

2  Cf .  The  Bible  as  English  Literature,  by  J.  H.  Gardiner,  As- 
sistant Professor  of  English  in  Harvard  University;  also 
Literary  Study  of  the  Bible,  by  Richard  G.  Moulton,  and  The 
Bible  as  Literature,  by  Professor  Moulton  and  others. 


INTRODUCTION  17 

of  English-speaking  people,  and  especially  how  it  has 
affected  the  making  of  that  great  body  of  literature 
that  is  the  just  pride  of  all  who  speak  the  English 
tongue. 

The  subject  is  beset  by  difficulties.  We  shall  often 
find  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  facts  that  elude  us, 
and  we  shall  often  be  aware  of  delicate  atmospheric 
effects  that  refuse  to  be  reduced  to  measured  formula 
or  statement.  Many  outstanding  facts,  however,  will 
enlist  our  attention;  nor  shall  we  despair  of  hinting 
at  least  at  some  of  the  obscurer  and  more  intricate  in- 
fluences, which,  though  less  certain,  may  be  all  the 
more  profound.  We  shall  not  be  content  with  showing 
how  the  Bible  has  been  quoted  by  English  writers. 
This  is  important,  and  will  receive  frequent  attention. 
The  purpose  is  broader  than  this — to  show  how  Bibli-\ 
cal  thought  and  style  have  entered  into  the  very  mold 
of  English   literature. 

The  subject  should  have  apologetic  value.  We  shall 
be  but  extending  our  knowledge  of  the  vitality  of  the 
Book,  and  strengthening  our  conviction  of  its  per- 
manent worth  for  human  thinking  and  living.  The 
lack  of  such  study  has  wrought  injury  on  two  sides. 
On  the  one  side  is  the  phenomenon  of  a  large  number 
of  educated  persons,  who  are  not  really  capable  of 
comprehending  our  noble  English  literature  in  a  spir- 
itual way,  through  their  deplorable  ignorance  of  its 
richest  sources  in  the  English  Bible.'  On  the  other 
side  is  the  phenomenon  of  a  group  of  persons,  trained 
in  the  Bible  and  Theology,  who  nevertheless  lack  in 

»5  "Without  the  Bible  it  is  impossible  to  understand  the  liter- 
ature of  the  English  language  from  Chaucer  to  Browning." 
Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  President  of  Columbia  University. 


18       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

certain  vivid  conceptions  of  the  power  of  the  Book, 
because  they  have  never  taken  pains  to  follow  it  in- 
timately into  those  wide  ranges  of  human  experience 
represented  by  literature. 

Nothing  can  be  closer  to  the  life,  to  the  very  pulsa- 
tions of  the  life  of  a  people,  than  literature.  To  the 
extent  that  we  shall  be  able  to  see  the  effect  of  the 
Bible  upon  literature,  we  shall  also  discover,  from  a 
fresh  point  of  view,  its  profound  relation  to  life.  We 
shall  see,  with  new  emphasis  of  fact,  how  productive 
this  Book  is  of  vital  thinking,  how  it  tends  to  produce 
an  upward  drift  of  the  mind,  how  it  cleanses  and 
broadens  the  mental  vision,  how  it  furnishes  types  and 
norms  of  thought  as  well  as  formulae  of  expression, 
how  it  creates  profound  and  moving  passions  of  the 
soul,  how,  in  short,  it  is  to  English-speaking  people  not 
merely  a  "pure  well  of  English  undefiled,"  but  also 
the  one  popular  Book  of  English  history,  entering  con- 
stantly into  the  thought  and  feeling  of  the  people,  and 
being  crystallized  in  scores  of  ways  in  their  literature. 

For  the  average  reader,  and  still  more  for  the 
student,  the  practical  results  to  be  expected  from  the 
pursuit  of  such  lines  of  study  as  are  suggested  in  this 
volume  may  be  briefly  indicated. 

First:  The  pursuit  of  such  studies  as  these  may  be 
expected  to  strengthen  our  appreciation  of  the  com- 
manding influence  of  the  Bible  among  men. 

Second:  Another  result  will  be  to  enlarge  our  un- 
derstanding of  the  Bible  itself,  especially  of  those 
qualities  of  the  Bible  that  make  it  the  Book  of  the 
people,  and  of  those  abundant  materials  that  are  so 
easily  imported  by  a  thousand  ways  of  adaptation  into 
the  feelings  and  thoughts  of  the  people. 


INTRODUCTION  19 

Third:  Such  studies  should  tend  therefore  to  in- 
creased faciUty  upon  the  part  of  those  who  are  called 
to  "handle  the  Word,"  by  exposing  the  power  of  the 
Book  on  the  side  of  its  variety  of  experience,  its 
diversity  of  speech  and  form,  and  its  broad  compre- 
hensiveness and  adaptation  to  life. 

Fourth:  There  should  follow  thus  a  very  just  em- 
phasis of  the  value  of  good  literature  as  a  medium  of 
approach  to  men.  By  this  we  do  not  mean  the  mere 
art  of  quotation.  Rather  we  mean  to  suggest  that 
there  is  in  literature  a  universal  language  which  men 
understand,  and  a  power  of  prerogative  which  gives 
it  mighty  sway  in  the  minds  of  men.  To  be  familiar 
with  this  quality  in  literature,  and  to  be  able  to  iden- 
tify its  major  influences  with  the  primary  forces  set 
free  in  the  mind  by  the  Book  of  books,  is  to  discover 
an  open  pathway  to  the  human  heart. 

Fifth :  Even  a  casual  inquirer  in  this  field  of  inves- 
tigation must  come  to  realize  more  clearly  than  before 
the  permanent  and  powerful  place  of  religion  in  hu- 
man experience. 

The  importance  of  our  theme  is  much  enhanced  by 
the  fact  that  the  inquiry  occupies  a  very  intensive  area 
of  history.  English  literature  has  proved  itself  a  ma- 
jestic instrument.  Covering  as  it  does  a  period  of  full 
twelve  hundred  years,  its  sweep  has  been  from  the 
beginning  outward  into  the  fields  of  power.  Lacking 
the  dramatic  strength  of  the  Greek  literature,  lacking 
also  the  vigorous  setting  of  a  stupendous  and  spec- 
tacular history  such  as  the  Latin  literature  enjoys,  it 
has  nevertheless  a  magnificent  background  of  narra- 
tive, a  high  atmospheric  color  of  national  genius,^  a  rare 
flexibility  and  grace  of  adaptation,  and  withal  a  moral 


«0        THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

receptiveness  that  echoes  the  longings  of  the  soul,  and 
creates  a  permanent  undertone  of  spiritual  feeling. 

Now  we  are  inquiring — What  has  been  the  influence 
of  the  Bible  in  this  intensive  and  constructive  period 
of  history,  particularly  in  the  growth  of  such  a  re- 
markable human  instrument  as  the  body  of  English 
literature  has  proved  to  be  ? 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  capacity  of  English,  litera- 
ture for  spiritual  life  and  expression  has  led  many 
students  to  believe  in  the  "special  providence"  of  his- 
tory. If  the  literature  of  the  English-speaking  people 
had  been  in  any  degree  less  ready  to  reflect  the  soul's 
light,  or  less  flexible  in  the  hands  of  reverent  men,  the 
world  would  have  suffered  a  pathetic  loss.  On  the 
contrary,  throughout  the  millennium  and  more  of  its 
active  influence  in  human  affairs,  English  literature  has 
been  a  profound  factor  in  the  spiritual  progress  of  the 
race.  It  has  caught  up  and  given  permanence  to  flit- 
ting ideals ;  it  has  registered  the  hopes  and  longings  of 
the  generations  in  the  things  of  the  soul ;  it  has  set  its 
standards  constantly  in  advance  of  the  people,  and 
called  them  forward  in  their  thinking. 

There  are  two  other  factors  that  deserve  considera- 
tion. One  of  these  is  the  constitution  of  the  English 
mind,  and  another  is  the  strange  shaping  of  affairs  in 
the  making  of  the  English  people. 

"The  more  I  reflect,"  writes  Taine  in  a  famous 
passage,  "on  the  conformation  of  the  English  mind, 
and  on  the  preeminence  of  the  moral  being,  and  the 
necessity  for  regarding  nature  through  the  eyes  of  the 
moral  being,  from  first  to  last,  the  more  clearly  do  I 
arrive  at  an  understanding  of  the  strong  and  innu- 


INTRODUCTION  £1 

merable  roots  of  that  serious  poem  which  is  here 
called  religion." 

What  will  such  a  people  do  with  such  a  Book?  It 
is  a  case  for  interesting  spiritual  prognostic,  and 
chastened  imagination.  For  more  than  a  thousand 
years,  since  the  very  time  indeed  when  this  people 
began  to  write  down  their  thoughts  and  experiences, 
they  have  been  marked  amongst  the  nations  as  "a 
people  of  a  Book."  Almost  their  entire  recorded  his- 
tory has  been  enacted  in  the  presence  of  the  Bible, 
whilst  some  of  the  most  important  events  of  their 
annals,  like  the  making  of  the  English  Versions,  have 
grown  out  of  their  connection  with  the  Book.  Many 
indeed  of  the  picturesque  elements  of  English  history, 
and  much  of  that  elemental  spiritual  romance  of  the 
annals  of  this  people,  are  due  to  the  presence  in  their 
midst  of  one  Book. 

Let  the  reader  consider  the  bent  of  the  English 
mind,  the  Puritan  "conversance  with  deep  things,"  the 
roots  of  which  are  discernible  quite  early,  the  forma- 
tive idealism,  the  profound  and  seemingly  fundamen- 
tal conviction  of  the  supernatural,  the  native  craving 
for  spiritual  satisfaction,  the  marked  openness  of  mind 
to  spiritual  impression,  and  he  will  realize  that  much 
is  to  be  expected  of  such  a  people,  thus  deeply  im- 
pressed with  the  meaning  of  "that  serious  poem  called 
religion" — with  such  a  book  as  the  Bible  in  their  pos- 
session. 

In  like  manner  no  one  can  read  the  story  of  the 
making  of  the  English  people  without  being  aware  of 
an  impressive  shaping  of  events.  The  subject  appeals 
strongly  to  the  historical  imagination.  We  must  try 
to  picture  to  ourselves  in  aid  of  our  theme  that  re- 


22       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

markable  blending  of  races  that  began  in  the  fifth 
century  and  continued  to  the  eleventh  century  and 
even  beyond,  producing  in  the  new  English  people  a 
splendid  composite  of  Teutonic  strength  and  serious- 
ness along  with  vast  rudeness,  of  Celtic  fervor  and 
imagination,  and  of  Norman  romance  and  lightness. 
From  this  remarkable  amalgamation  there  came  forth 
a  new  national  product,  a  people  of  large  capacity  for 
life  and  service,  tinged  from  the  beginning  with  moral 
earnestness,  and  gifted  also  with  an  interpretative 
genius,  that  is  ready  at  all  times  to  burst  on  the  one 
hand  into  sober  prose  and  solemn  tragedy,  or  on  the 
other  hand  into  lyric  song  and  romantic  imagery.  "It 
is  not  without  significance,"  writes  the  historian  Green, 
in  an  effort  to  account  for  the  genius  of  William 
Shakespeare,  "that  the  highest  type  of  the  race,  the 
one  Englishman  who  has  combined  in  the  largest 
measure  the  mobility  and  fancy  of  the  Celt,  with  the 
depth  and  energy  of  the  Teutonic  temper,  was  born 
on  the  old  Welsh  and  English  border-land,  in  the 
forest  of  Arden."* 

We  must  try  also  to  reproduce  to  our  imagination 
the  strange  confusion  of  tongues  that  grew  out  of  the 
blending  of  races,  the  formation  of  that  sturdy  in- 
strument of  human  expression,  the  Anglo-Saxon,  and 
the  final  survival,  through  a  period  of  heroic  strug- 
gle, of  the  English  language,  modified  and  enriched 
by  Norman  additions.  When  the  process  of  language 
formation  is  at  length  completed,  it  is  apparent  to  the 
student,  who  has  watched  the  process  as  in  a  chemist's 
glass  in  the  laboratory,  that  the  English  people  are  in 

*  Quoted  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  ninth  edition,  in  an 
article  on  Shakespeare,  by  Prof.  T.  Spencer  Baynes. 


INTRODUCTION  23 

possession  of  a  language  which  reflects  in  ruggedness, 
color,  and  earnestness  of  tone  the  spiritual  aspira- 
tions of  this  new  and  strong  race.  'That  wonderful 
composite  called  English,  the  best  result  of  the  con- 
fusion of  tongues,"  is  the  characteristic  description 
of  James  Russell  Lowell.  "The  English-speaking 
nations,"  he  adds,  "should  build  a  monument  to  the 
misguided  enthusiasts  of  the  Plain  of  Shinar;  for,  as 
the  mixture  of  many  bloods  seems  to  have  made  them 
the  most  vigorous  of  modern  races,  so  has  the  mingling 
of  divers  speeches  given  them  a  language  which  is 
perhaps  the  noblest  vehicle  of  poetic  thought  that  ever 
existed."^ 

The  far-away  beginnings  of  English  literature,  when 
as  yet  the  English  were  a  heathen  people,  reveal  the 
serious  background  of  their  thought.  Their  imagina- 
tion was  early  busied  with  a  dimly-perceived  spiritual 
world,  and  they  dealt  earnestly,  however  crudely,  with 
the  deep  questions  that  arise  in  the  human  mind.  They 
produced  a  body  of  myth  and  song  that  represents 
with  pathetic  emphasis  their  inherent  earnestness. 
The  student  lingers  with  a  fascination  that  runs  in  the 
blood  over  the  scanty  and  imperfect  lines  of  "Wid- 
sith,"  or  "The  Far  Wianderer,"  which  are  believed  to 
be  the  earliest  specimens  of  Anglo-Saxon  verse  that 
have  come  down  to  us.  Among  many  minor  poems  of 
that  early  day  there  is  one  that  has  rightful  promi- 
nence. This  is  "Beowulf,"  a  poem  of  three  thousand 
lines.  The  theme  of  this  rugged  composition  is  con- 
flict— conflict  with  the  powers  of  evil.  It  contains 
many  sentiments  that  indicate  the  beginnings  of  fine 
feeling. 

8  Among  My  Books,  Vol.  I,  Essay  on  Shakespeare, 


24        THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

"So  it  behooves  a  man  to  act  when  he  thinks  to  at- 
tain enduring  praise — he  will  not  be  caring  for  his 
life."  "He  who  has  the  chance  should  work  mighty 
deeds  before  he  die:  that  is  for  a  mighty  man  the 
best  memorial." 

These  quotations  from  "Beowulf"  show  that  the 
spirit  of  courageous  and  unselfish  endeavor  is  al- 
ready stirring  in  the  early  English  blood.  "Such 
stuff,"  remarks  a  historian,  "was  there  in  the  English 
even  when  they  were  heathen."  The  scop  and  glee- 
man,  wandering  minstrels  and  early  poets  of  our 
English  race,  whose  figures  serve  as  a  foil  to  human 
brutality,  as  we  see  them  moving  amidst  the  striking 
scenes  of  Saxon  halls  of  feasting,  knew  not  as  yet  the 
inspiration  of  Biblical  themes.  Nevertheless  their  harps 
were  being  attuned  by  the  very  nature  of  their  themes 
for  the  coming  of  the  nobler  Song  of  the  Book  of  God. 

"In  characters  so  strong  and  serious  Christianity 
became  a  vital  force,  directing  the  currents,  not  only 
of  life,  but  of  thought  and  of  literature.  Accordingly 
the  bringing  of  this  heathen  England  within  the  circle 
of  Christendom  makes  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  Eng- 
lish literature."^ 

When  Christianity  with  its  wonderful  Book  is  once 
lodged  in  the  life  of  this  people,  it  may  be  expected 
that  they  will  yield  to  the  new  influence  to  a  remark- 
able degree,  and  especially  that  their  literature,  when 
it  begins  to  bud  and  blossom,  will  to  an  unusual  ex- 
tent be  determined  by  the  presence  of  such  a  Book. 

« Introduction  to  English  Literature,  by  Henry  S.  Pancoast, 
p.  30. 


II 


THE  SPIRIT  AND  TONE  OF  ENGLISH 
LITERATURE 

"The  first  condition  of  great  literature  is  a  unity  of 
theme  and  concept  that  shall  give  coherence  and  or- 
ganization to  all  detail,  however  varied.  By  this  test 
the  Bible  is  great  literature." — Prof.  Albert  S.  Cook. 

IT  is  proper  in  advance  of  further  inquiry,  to  point 
out  the  several  directions  in  which  we  may  look 
for  the  influence  of  the  Bible  in  the  making  of 
English  literature. 

The  first  and  most  obvious  influence  is  upon  lan- 
guage, style  and  expression.  Close  contact  with  the 
Bible  invariably  produces  a  profound  effect  upon  hu- 
man speech.  Let  men  live  generation  after  generation 
in  the  atmosphere  of  this  Book,  reading  its  language 
and  absorbing  its  thought,  and  their  speech  will  grow 
more  expressive,  and  more  weighty,  as  if  some  mys- 
terious mastery  had  possessed  their  lips,  and  exacted 
tribute  of  their  tongues.  The  secret  of  this  mastery 
of  the  Scripture  over  human  speech  is  not  easy  to 
fathom.  Apparently  it  is  the  reflection  of  its  own  lit- 
erary qualities,  such  as  Simplicity,  Directness,  Dignity 
and  Strength.  But  even  so,  there  is  still  a  haunting 
echo  of  inward  power  in  the  Bible,  which  passes  into 
speech,  an  indefinable  quality  of  emotion  which  can- 
not be  better  described  than  by  the  term  Spirituality. 

25 


26      THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

The  Bible  discusses  its  lofty  themes  ordinarily  with 
such  simplicity  as  at  times  almost  to  endanger  its 
supernatural  claims.  Its  language  is  seldom  in  the 
clouds,  however  supernal  the  theme.  The  Revelation 
of  the  Apostle  John,  for  example,  moving  on  a  high 
plane  of  apocalyptic  mystery,  makes  constant  use  oiE 
simple,  everyday  images  of  truth.  The  grand  themes 
of  that  book  are  interpreted  in  terms  of  candlesticks, 
crowns,  rivers,  cities,  walls,  jewels,  and  the  like.  The 
effect  of  Biblical  diction  has  been  to  dignify  English 
speech,  to  produce  a  certain  masterful  quality  of  sim- 
plicity that  passes  readily  into  conversation  and  com- 
position. For  generations  it  has  been  to  men  of  the 
English  tongue  a  model  of  pure,  strong,  straightfor- 
ward speech.  By  eschewing  empty  words  and  phrases 
it  has  taught  them  also  to  make  their  speech  represent- 
ative of  the  soul's  life.  It  has  produced  earnestness 
in  speech,  and  has  created  those  far-reaching  effects 
of  language  that  furnish  literal  foundation  for  the 
statement  of  Jesus :  "By  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  justi- 
fied, and  by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  condemned." 

Among  all  his  gifts  language  is  the  most  flexible,  the 
most  responsive,  the  most  delicate  instrument  in  the 
possession  of  man.  Whatever  affects  the  quality  of 
this  instrument  affects  also  the  tone  of  life  itself. 
Language  acts  in  reflex  ways  upon  men.  (JThe  morali- 
ties of  a  people  are  always  struggling  to  reach  the 
level  of  their  speech.  ^>  True  and  simple  diction  has  an 
ethical  force,  and  it  is  in  this  light  that  we  must  esti- 
mate the  effect  of  the  Bible  on  language.  There  are 
books  that  exercise  a  demoralising  effect  on  speech. 
Men  learn  from  them  to  speak  with  less  of  restraint, 
less  of  moral  precision,  less  of  the  weight  and  dignity 


THE  SPIRIT  AND  TONE  27 

of  spiritual  feeling.  About  such  books  there  is  a 
noxious  quality  that  poisons  the  very  fountains  of 
expression.  After  the  lapse  of  centuries  Boccaccio's 
Decameron  still  infects  the  tongues  of  men,  as  it  does 
their  thoughts  also,  with  its  bacterial  immoralties.  It 
is  impossible  to  compute  the  baleful  effect  of  such  a 
book  upon  the  speech  of  men,  to  say  nothing  of  their 
lives.  Contrast  with  such  books  the  writings  of  the 
Puritans.  However  ponderous  their  thought,  they 
write  nevertheless  under  the  influence  of  a  Book  that 
dignifies  and  moralizes  the  speech  of  those  who  con- 
sort with  it.  The  best  English  speech  of  today  reflects 
the  Puritan  influence,  whilst  in  those  quarters  where 
our  language  appears  in  pathetic  ways  to  have  lost  its 
sensitive  moral  color,  we  trace  the  loss  correctly  to  the 
waning  of  Puritan  influence. 

Writing  of  the  influence  of  the  Bible  on  words,  a 
university  professor  of  English  says :  "It  was  for  gen- 
erations the  chosen  companion  of  all  men,  from  the 
highest  to  the  humblest.  Consciously  or  unconsciously 
it  was  adopted  by  everyone  as  a  guide  to  the  best 
usage.  Never,  perhaps,  in  the  history  of  any  tongue 
has  a  single  book  so  profoundly  aflfected  universal  ex- 
pression as  has  the  English  Bible.  It  is  not  that  we 
now  talk  or  write  in  the  diction  employed  in  it.  Even 
in  its  own  day  the  language  it  employed  was  somewhat 
archaic.  But  its  simplicity,  its  beauty,  its  eflFective- 
ness,  made  it  serve  from  the  beginning  as  a  standard 
of  speech,  about  which  the  language  revolved,  and 
from  which  it  has  never  got  very  far.  It  held  up  be- 
fore all  an  ideal  of  pure  and  lofty  expression.  The 
familiarity  of  our  fathers  with  the  translation  of  the 
Bible,  the  intimate  acquaintance  they  gained  with  its 


28       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

words  and  phrases,  its  constructions,  its  manner,  has 
done  more  to  maintain  the  purity  of  our  speech  than 
could  have  been  effected  by  the  mastery  of  all  the 
manuals  of  verbal  criticism  which  have  ever  been  pro- 
duced."^ 

The  deeper  we  go  into  the  history  of  the  English 
language  and  literature  the  more  distinctly  are  we 
aware  of  an  influence  that  is  moralizing  words,  refin- 
ing expression,  and  creating  discriminations  in  speech, 
which,  while  they  represent  the  judgment  of  the  mind, 
tend  also  to  react  upon  that  judgment  and  to  establish 
it  more  firmly  than  before.  This  influence,  beyond  all 
question,  is  the  English  Bible.  Think  of  how  it  has 
caused  such  words  as  righteousness,  justice,  purity, 
honesty,  obedience,  sincerity,  reverence,  worship,  hope, 
faith,  love,  to  obtain  currency  in  English  speech.  Think 
of  how  it  has  put  upon  the  tongues  of  men  phrases  and 
expressions  that  have  become  rubrics  of  mental  and 
moral  force.  Think  of  how  it  has  magnified  the  im- 
portance of  language  as  a  factor  in  life,  and  how  it  has 
established  a  barrier  against  the  thousand  "peering 
littlenesses"  and  trivialities  of  speech,  furnishing  in- 
stead a  magnificent  language  vista  for  the  mind.  Think 
in  short  of  how  it  has  enriched,  enlarged,  and  diversi- 
fied the  power  of  expression,  lifting  it  ever  to  higher 
levels,  giving  it  a  wider  outlook,  and  filling  it  with  the 
reverberations  of  an  unworldly  power  and  grace. 
Such  as  these  are  the  cla^'ms  that  may  justly  be  made 
for  the  Bible  in  its  effect  upon  language,  style  and  ex- 
pression. 

1  From  an  article  in  Harper's  Monthly,  June,  1908,  on  *The 
Correct  Use  of  Words,"  by  Thomas  R.  Lounsbury,  Emeritus 
Professor  of  English  in  Yale  University. 


THE  SPIRIT  AND  TONE  90 

Another  very  obvious  effect  of  the  Bible  is  seen  in 
its  regulation  of  the  tone  of  English  literature.  This 
is  a  far  deeper  effect  than  the  first-named,  yet  it  is  to 
some  extent  a  resultant  of  the  effect  on  style  and  ex- 
pression. Language  is  so  close  to  life,  that  it  is  bound 
to  react  upon  life.  Improved  expression  therefore 
soon  registers  itself  in  a  higher  literary  tone.  On  the 
other  hand,  deterioration  in  style  lowers  the  level  of 
literary  feeling.  It  is  important  that  men  should 
speak  well,  for  thereby  they  tend  to  rise  to  higher  levels 
in  their  thinking.  We  meet  here  with  an  incidental 
reason  for  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  educational  circles. 
To  acquaint  our  youth  with  the  Scripture  is  to  give 
them  at  the  same  time  an  unvarying  standard  of  good 
speech,  a  standard  so  vital  and  persistent  as  to  affect 
also  the  mental  and  moral  tone.  It  is  impossible  for 
men  to  breathe  the  atmosphere  of  this  Book  year  after 
year,  generation  after  generation,  without  rising  to  a 
higher  level  of  thought.  Thomas  Huxley  pleaded  for 
the  use  of  the  Bible  in  the  schools,  because  he  declared 
it  to  be  the  only  great  classic  within  reach  of  the  com- 
mon people,  the  reading  of  which  is  bound  to  assist 
and  establish  the  moral  tone  of  nations. 
'  Yet  the  power  of  the  Bible  in  regulating  the  tone  of 
literature  is  something  more  than  a  resultant  of  its 
effect  on  language.  It  is  in  short  an  effect  of  atmos- 
phere. It  may  indeed  exist  apart  from  any  very  ob- 
vious effect  on  style.  This  is  best  illustrated  by  refer- 
ence to  such  examples  as  are  to  be  seen  in  almost  every 
community  of  persons  not  highly  gifted  in  style  and 
expression,  who  nevertheless  reach  a  high  level  of 
thought  under  the  influence  of  the  Bible.  It  is  at  such 
a  point  that  we  witness  the  making  of  popular  feeling 


30      THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

which  ultimately  registers  itself  in  literature.  Literature 
is  not  made  by  influences  that  work  from  higher  levels 
downward,  but  rather  by  influences  that  proceed  from 
lower  levels  upward.  The  common  people  are  in 
reality  the  makers  of  literature.  It  is  among  the  peo- 
ple that  those  representative  and  interpretative  ex- 
periences transpire  that  emerge  later  by  the  pen  of  the 
writer  upon  the  pages  of  literature.  "The  people  and 
not  the  college  is  the  writer's  home,"  says  Emerson. 
Whatever  touches  popular  feeling,  and  determines  in 
any  degree  the  tone  and  color  of  popular  experience, 
is  an  important  element  in  the  making  of  literature. 
The  teaching  of  the  Bible  in  a  mission  school  may 
have  a  far-away  effect  in  an  improved  national  char- 
acter, and  an  improved  national  literature  as  well. 
Ideals  of  liberty,  of  personal  integrity,  of  social  con- 
science and  responsibility  may  thus  be  set  up  in  the 
minds  of  the  people,  whose  reflections  will  be  caught 
later  in  the  pages  of  literature.  Whatever  else  may  be 
thought  of  the  Bible,  it  is  a  Book  so  vital  and  virile  as 
to  affect  the  tone  of  everything  that  it  touches. 

The  tone  of  English  literature  is  nothing  imaginary 
or  ecstatic.  It  is  in  fact  a  'Very  pronounced  asset  of 
history.  No  one  can  read  the  best  books  of  the  Eng- 
lish speech  without  recognizing  an  effect  of  something 
intoning  and  uplifting,  an  implicit  and  assertive  spirit- 
ual quality  that  continually  breaks  forth  into  explicit 
forms.  "One  may  roughly  say  that  the  spirit  of  Eng- 
lish literature  at  its  best  is  prophetic,  that  the  essential 
characteristics  of  the  books  which  are  the  record  of  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  English  race  are  virility, 
directness,    unconsciousness,   prepossession   with   the 


THE  SPIRIT  AND  TONE  81 

higher  sides  of  life,  and  a  noble  and  uplifting  pur- 
pose."^ 

How  then  does  the  Bible  contribute  to  this  definite 
tone  or  spirit  of  English  literature?  We  are  attempt- 
ing no  obscure  or  intricate  analysis.  Rather  we  are 
but  trying  to  state  in  explicit  terms  those  effects  of 
the  Bible  that  become  a  personal  experience  with 
everyone  who  comes  close  enough  to  it  to  feel  its 
powerful  spell. 

Evidently  then  the  Bible  contributes  to  the  spirit 
or  tone  of  literature  by  furnishing,  not  to  writers 
alone,  but  to  the  people  in  general,  the  materials  of  a 
vital  experience.  Literature  of  a  pronounced  type 
cannot  exist  apart  from  a  rich  experience.  The  more 
diversified  the  experience  the  more  positive  the  literary  ^ 
type.  "Out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth 
speaketh."  Now  the  Bible  pours  in  upon  the  human 
mind  a  vast  and  diversified,  yet  also  a  unified,  material 
of  experience — material  so  concrete,  so  ready  at  hand, 
as  to  pass  over  easily  into  those  crystallizations  of 
sentiment  which  are  connoted  when  we  speak  of  pop- 
ular feeling.  Yet  it  is  a  process  far  too  delicate  to 
follow  in  detail.  What  is  clear,  however,  is  that  the 
Biblical  material  is  constantly  being  transmuted  into 
the  gold  of  experience.  Think  of  any  representative 
incident  or  narrative  of  the  Bible,  the  story  of  Joseph, 
for  example.  Here  is  a  compact,  concrete  formula  or 
rubric  of  experience.  Such  an  experience  in  narra- 
tive form  furnishes  not  only  the  material  of  thought, 
but  also  a  center  or  norm  about  which  we  may  organ- 
ize our  own  experience.    Such  narratives  of  the  Bible 

^The  Bible  as  English  Literature,  by  J.  H.  Gardiner,  As- 
sistant Professor  of  English  in  Harvard  University,  p.  394. 


32       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

are  in  reality  representative  experiences  carefully  for- 
mulated, and  ready  to  be  carried  over  into  life  and 
literature. 

Or  take  the  most  classic  illustration  of  all — the  life 
of  Jesus  as  related  in  the  New  Testament.  As  Pro- 
fessor Denny  has  said:  "When  we  open  the  New 
Testament  we  find  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  a  glow- 
ing religious  life."^  Not  only  does  this  life  insist  upon 
dominating  our  opinions — even  more  it  insists  upon 
entering  as  a  real  factor  into  our  vital  experience. 
This  is  no  doubt  the  deeper  reach  of  our  Lord's  ques- 
tion: "What  think  ye  of  Christ?"  The  Son  of  Man 
stands  at  the  door  and  knocks,  the  door  of  life,  the 
door  of  vital  experience.  It  is  impossible  to  state  in 
terms  the  far-reaching  effect  of  the  life  of  Christ  in 
the  New  Testament  upon  popular  feeling.  Its  con- 
crete material,  its  formulae  and  centers  of  experience, 
have  been  carried  over  into  a  vital  experience  of  the 
generations.  In  the  fact  of  Christ  men  have  found 
constructive  material  for  their  own  experience,  and 
have  discovered  also  such  creative  impulses  as  have 
set  the  mind  a-tingling  with  an  inextinguishable  crav* 
ing  for  action.  This  universal  appeal  of  the  Life  of 
Christ,  this  claim  of  the  Son  of  Man  to  a  share  of 
human  experience,  is  among  the  divinest  facts  of  the 
current  history  of  Christianity,  and  the  response  is  by 
no  means  limited  to  the  immediate  pale  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  Our  point  is  that  the  material  furnished 
in  the  Life  of  Christ  is  so  profound  and  far-reaching 
m  its  effect,  that  we  may  expect  many  degrees  of  vital 
experience  to  result  from  it,  and  many  different  forms 
of  creative  impulse. 

*  Jesus  and  the  Gospel,  p.  i. 


THE  SPmiT  AND  TONE  8S 

Now  what  is  called  the  tone  or  spirit  of  English 
literature  bears  unmistakably  within  it  the  effect  of  a 
vital  experience  that  has  come  out  of  contact  with  the 
material  of  the  Bible.  Our  writers  consciously  and  un- 
consciously have  wrought  in  the  atmosphere  of  this 
Book.  Its  universalism,  its  idealism,  its  spirituality, 
have  affected  the  norms  of  their  thought.  Its  vision 
of  the  Eternal,  its  emphasis  of  immortality,  its  insist- 
ence upon  salvation — and  these  not  as  technicalities, 
but  as  elements  of  a  real  experience — have  spread  a 
mighty  canvas  for  English  thought,  and  have  produced 
an  unlimited  background  for  English  literature. 

The  whole  effect  of  spirituality  in  life  with  its  grave 
problems  and  difficult  interrogatives,  the  sincere  feel- 
ing of  largeness  of  treatment,  which  permits  each  man 
to  look  out  from  his  own  doorstep  upon  the  universe, 
and  to  feel  himself  part  of  a  plan,  the  profound  sense 
of  things  invisible  and  inexpressible,  the  brilliant  op- 
timism, the  exuberant  joy  and  exhilaration,  the  general 
sense  of  wholesomeness,  courage  and  obligation — these 
characteristics  of  English  literature  are  traceable  in 
large  part  to  the  tonic  effect  of  the  Bible. 

The  Bible  has  in  fact  gone  deeper  still  and  has  to 
a  large  extent  sharpened  and  determined  the  very 
genius  of  the  English-speaking  peoples.  "Where  there 
is  no  vision  the  people  perish."  Without  a  perpetual 
enlarging  vision  literature  also  declines.  It  is  con- 
ceivable that  without  the  influence  of  the  Bible  the 
native  strength  and  capacity  of  the  English  folk  might 
have  shriveled  away  and  become  a  futile  force  in 
human  affairs. 

For  twelve  hundred  years  and  more  the  peoples  of 
English  speech  have  had  before  their  eyes  the  trans- 


34       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

forming  visions  of  the  Word  of  God.  They  have  not 
been  made  perfect ;  far  from  it.  Nevertheless  the  very 
genius  of  these  peoples  has  been  transformd  and 
energized.  The  Bible  has  become  naturalized  in  their 
experience.  It  has  rendered  to  them  an  incalculable 
service  in  setting  constantly  before  them  the  ideals 
of  an  invisible  kingdom.  It  has  contributed  to  their 
mental  and  spiritual  life  certain  great  and  constructive 
ideas,  and  has  stimulated  them  in  the  endeavor  to 
crystallize  their  life  about  these  ideas.  It  has  thus 
slowly  in  the  passage  of  years  and  centuries  created, 
or  at  least  established,  a  national  genius — a  genius 
which  with  many  discrepancies,  and  many  aberrations, 
is  persistently  recognized  as  a  spiritual  genius.  And 
this  spiritual  life  or  genius  has  expressed  itself  in  a 
literature — an  English  literature,  which  can  no  more 
be  separated  from  the  Bible  than  can  the  colors  of  the 
rainbow  be  untwisted  from  one  another. 


Ill 

THE  COMING  OF  THE  BOOK 

*'Bone  of  our  literary  bone,  and  flesh  of  our  literary 
flesh,  it  has  exercised  upon  English  character  an  in- 
fluence moral,  social,  and  political,  which  it  is  not  pos- 
sible to  measure." — H.  W.  Hoare. 

THE  Isle  of  Thanet  forms  the  eastern  extremity 
of  Kent,  and  there  English  history  proper  had 
its  beginning.  For  it  was  at  Ebbsfleet  in  the 
Isle  of  Thanet  that  Hengest  landed  with  his  tribes- 
men from  Jutland  in  the  year  449  or  450.  "No  spot 
in  Britain  can  be  so  sacred  to  Englishmen  as  that 
which  first  felt  the  tread  of  English  feet."^ 

As  if  this  were  not  enough  to  establish  the  fame  of 
this  one  spot  of  English  soil,  a  century  and  a  half 
later  another  band  of  strangers  from  a  diflferent  direc- 
tion landed  on  the  Isle  of  Thanet.  The  year  was 
probably  597,  and  from  this  time  forward  the  spot  is 
quite  as  famous  as  the  landing-place  of  the  Christian 
monk  Augustine  and  his  emissaries  from  Rome,  as  of 
the  far-away  fathers  of  the  English  race.  If  the  first 
landing  at  Ebbsfleet  made  the  English  people,  the 
second  landing  at  Ebbsfleet  determined  the  character 
and  destiny  of  the  English  people.  The  die  of  English 
history,  and  of  English  literature  as  well,  was  cast 

^A  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  by  J.  R.  Green, 
Chapter  I,  Section  II. 

85 


36       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

when  Augustine  and  his  monks  stepped  ashore  on  the 
sands  of  Kent  in  597.  They  brought  with  them  the 
Book  of  books. 

The  story  of  how  this  came  about  is  preserved  for 
us  in  the  writings  of  the  Venerable  Bede.  It  is  a  story 
that  fires  the  imagination  and  feeds  the  spirit  of 
romance  that  is  native  to  men  of  the  EngHsh  stock. 
One  day  in  the  Forum  of  Rome  an  influential  priest 
of  the  Christian  church,  Gregory  by  name,  whose  hand 
was  already  resting,  unknown  to  himself,  upon  the 
Primate's  chair,  stood  gazing  at  a  company  of  foreign 
slaves  exposed  for  sale.  The  priest  was  fascinated 
by  their  fair  faces,  for  they  were  like  David,  "of  a 
ruddy  countenance  and  fair  to  look  upon."  Some 
touch  almost  of  Christian  prophecy  is  in  the  story  of 
his  anxious  curiosity.  They  were  angels,  he  thought, 
not  Angles,  as  their  fair  complexion  betokened.  Their 
country  could  not  be  Deira  merely,  (the  name  of  an 
English  province),  but  De  ira,  for  they  must  be 
plucked,  he  averred,  from  God's  ire  by  the  mercy  of 
Christ.  Their  king's  name  moreover,  ^lla,  did  it  not 
suggest  that  "Alleluia  shall  be  sung  in  Ella's  land?" 
Such  is  the  picturesque  tale  that  has  come  down  to  us. 

It  is  the  outcome  of  this  incident  that  interests  us  so 
profoundly,  for  when  this  same  Gregory  came  to  the 
papal  chair,  he  could  not  forget  the  English  captives 
whom  he  had  seen  in  the  Forum.  A  church  is  shown 
in  Rome  today,  on  the  site  of  which  Pope  Gregory  is 
said  to  have  parted  with  Augustine  and  his  forty 
monks  when  they  were  starting  on  their  way  to  Eng- 
land. Imagination  lingers  long  and  fondly  upon  these 
far-away  scenes.  Little  recked  they  of  the  importance 
of  the  event.     Ethelbert  was  the  King  of  Kent.     It 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  BOOK  37 

may  be  inferred  that  he  was  not  altogether  hostile  to 
Christianity,  for  he  had  married  Bertha,  a  Prankish 
princess  and  a  Christian.  A  Christian  bishop  had  ac- 
companied her  to  Kent  and  had  established  a  center  of 
Christian  worship  at  Canterbury.  There  were  in  fact 
lingering  remnants  of  Christianity  in  England,  that 
had  come  down  from  the  second  century,  having  sur- 
vived the  cataclysm  of  the  Saxon  invasion  in  the  fifth 
century. 

It  is  an  engaging  scene  which  historians  have 
painted  for  us,  one  upon  which  the  mind  dwells  with 
the  irresistible  feelings  that  possess  the  great  events  of 
history.  The  king  received  the  strangers  under  a 
spreading  tree  somewhere  on  the  chalk  down  above 
the  shore  where  nowadays  the  eye  may  see  across  the 
marshes  the  dim  outline  of  the  towers  of  Canter- 
bury. Augustine  and  his  monks  approached  chant- 
ing a  litany.  They  formed  a  strange  and  impressive 
procession,  clad  as  they  were  in  long  robes,  and  bear- 
ing aloft  a  silver  Cross  and  an  image  of  Christ.  But 
more  important  than  images  and  crucifixes,  they  bore 
in  their  hands  rolls  of  parchment,  which  were  covered 
with  characters  that  had  never  before  been  seen  in 
England.  The  rolls  were  the  Bible  written  in  the 
Latin  language,  at  least  such  important  portions  of  it 
as  the  four  Gospels  and  the  Psalter;  and  this  was  the 
coming  of  the  Book  to  England  and  Englishmen. 

If  some  fortunate  collector  could  but  possess  him- 
self of  these  priceless  parchments,  he  would  be  rich 
indeed  beyond  the  riches  of  all  the  libraries,  for  the 
effect  of  these  Latin  rolls  upon  generations  unborn  is 
beyond  the  power  of  any  mind  to  conceive.  The 
British  Museum  preserves  a  manuscript  in  its  Cotton 


38      THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Collection  which  brings  us  very  near  to  the  copies 
brought  by  Augustine.  It  is  an  "interlineated"  Eng- 
lish Psalter,  based  upon  a  Latin  Psalter  of  the  seventh 
century,  which  is  believed  to  have  been  sent  to  Augus- 
tine by  Gregory  not  long  after  his  arrival  in  Kent. 

King  Ethelbert's  reception  of  the  strangers  from 
Rome  with  their  strange  symbols  and  their  mysterious 
Book  was  at  least  without  hostility.  "Your  words  are 
fair,"  he  said  after  the  long  sermon  of  the  vistors  had 
been  interpreted  to  him,  "but  they  are  new  and  of 
doubtful  meaning."  He  made  no  promises  for  him- 
self or  his  people,  but  he  offered  protection  to  the 
newcomers.  They  were  soon  at  home  in  Canterbury, 
where  they  chanted  their  litanies  and  sang  their 
"Alleluias"  to  the  amazement  of  Saxon  onlookers. 
Nor  was  it  long  before  Ethelbert  yielded  as  a  convert 
of  the  new  faith,  whereupon  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  his  Kentish  men  presented  themselves  for  baptism.^ 

It  was  a  rich  gift  indeed  that  Augustine  brought  to 
England  on  the  verge  of  the  seventh  century,  for  it 
was  threefold: — the  Christian  religion,  the  Hebrew 
literature,  and  the  Roman  forms  of  writing.  At  such 
a  point  in  history  the  imagination  loves  to  stand 
unharnessed,  and  to  run  without  rein  forward  into  the 
years.  What  masterful  effects  these  simple  parch- 
ments will  work  throughout  the  years !  How  impres- 
sive also  is  the  Providence  that  has  given  this  wonder- 
ful Book  into  the  possession  of  a  people  so  richly 
endowed  as  were  these  early  English  folk!  Consider 
the  spiritual  capacities  that  lie  slumbering  in  this 
Teutonic  blood.     Consider  the  power  of  the   Book 

2  See  Green's  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  Chap- 
ter I,  Section  IIL 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  BOOK  39 

itself  to  mold  the  thoughts  of  men,  even  to  refine  the 
genius  of  a  people  that  could  express  itself  so  nobly, 
albeit  so  rudely,  in  such  a  voice  as  that  of  "Beowulf." 
Consider  the  effect  of  the  New  Testament  with  its 
wonderful  story  of  the  suffering  Savior  upon  the 
imagination  of  this  fighting  race,  how  it  would  appeal 
to  their  sense  of  the  heroic,  and  inspire  them  to  deeds 
of  valor  and  unselfishness.  The  situation  is  one  of 
commanding  interest,  and  magnificent  prospect.  An 
example  of  the  effect  of  the  story  of  the  Cross  upon 
the  eagerness  of  a  militant  state  of  mind  is  seen  in  the 
familiar  story  of  King  Clovis,  who,  when  he  had 
witnessed  the  Passion  Play  exclaimed,  "If  I  had  only 
been  there  with  my  Franks !" 

"Imagine,"  writes  a  historian,  "this  poetry  of  the 
South,  with  its  odors  of  spices,  its  music  of  sounding 
harp  and  tinkling  cymbal,  its  visions  of  green  pastures 
and  still  waters,  all  at  once  mingled  with  the  songs  of 
gleemen  who  sang  at  barbaric  feasts,  where  warriors 
clothed  in  skins  spilled  mead  to  the  memory  of  dead 
heroes,  and  celebrated  the  glories  of  bloody  warfare. 
Think  of  the  melodious  rhythm  of  these  English 
singers  blending  all  at  once  with  the  melody  of  the 
harp-strings  that  the  Hebrew  bard  had  struck  by  the 
waters  of  Judea,  under  the  glowing  skies  of  the 
Orient."^ 

If  one  could  throw  the  generations  of  English 
history  into  an  alembic  and  examine  them  by  a  minute 
process  of  qualitative  analysis,  he  would  discover 
from  the  day  that  Ethelbert  welcomed  the  visitors 
under  the  spreading  tree  in  Kent,  that  a  new  and 

^Familiar  Talks  on  English  Literature,  by  Abby  Sage 
Richardson,  p.  26. 


40      THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

powerful  element  was  present;  he  would  become 
aware  of  a  deep  infiltration  of  Biblical  thought  and 
feeling;  he  would  observe  the  quickening  effect  of 
new  impulses  and  energies,  of  new  visions  and 
heroisms;  and  more  than  this  he  would  observe  a 
contagious  influence  passing  into  the  life  of  the  people, 
that  must  profoundly  affect  the  making  of  literature. 


IV 

EARLY  RISERS  OF  LITERATURE 

"Early  risers  of  literature,  who  gather  phrases' with 
the  dew  still  on  them." — ^James  Russell  Lowell. 

WE  need  not  follow  in  detail  the  story  of 
how  England  accepted  the  Gospel,  and  with 
it  the  wonderful  Book  that  was  destined  to 
enter  so  profoundly  into  its  life  and  literature.  The 
progress  of  Christianity  was  by  leaps  and  bounds, 
although  in  some  quarters,  as  in  Mercia  under  Penda, 
paganism  held  stoutly  to  its  ground. 

With  the  conversion  of  Ethelbert  Kent  became  at 
once  a  center  of  the  new  faith  with  Canterbury  as 
headquarters.  Soon  the  light  of  Christianity  shone 
afar,  and  fell  among  the  dark  shadows  of  the  forests 
of  Northumbria.  King  Edwin  the  powerful  ruler  of 
Northumbria  whose  sway  reached  far  to  the  North, 
and  whose  name  is  preserved  in  that  of  Eadwine's 
burgh,  or  Edinburgh,  is  reported  to  have  been  baptized 
on  Easter  Day,  62y,  The  figure  of  the  saintly 
Paulinus,  missionary  to  Northumbria,  described  as  of 
"tall  stooping  form,  slender  aquiline  nose,  and  black 
hair  falling  round  a  thin  worn  face,"  may  suggest  the 
type  of  devotion  that  carved  out  a  highway  for  the 
Gospel  in  the  forest  and  fenland  of  heathen  England.^ 

iCf.  Wordsworth's  "Ecclesiastical  Sonnets,"  Part  I,  XV. 
Paulinus. 

4.1 


42      THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

At  the  council  called  by  King  Edwin  to  consider  the 
adoption  of  Christianity  an  aged  ealderman  arose  and 
said,  "So  seems  life,  O  King,  as  a  sparrow's  flight 
through  the  hall  where  a  man  is  sitting  at  meat  in  the 
wintertide  with  the  warm  fire  lighted  on  the  hearth, 
but  the  chill  rainstorm  without.  The  sparrow  flies  in 
at  one  door  and  tarries  for  a  moment  in  the  light  and 
heat  of  the  hearth-fire,  and  then  flying  forth  from  the 
other,  vanishes  into  the  wintry  darkness  whence  it 
came.  So  tarries  for  a  moment  the  life  of  man  in  our 
sight,  but  what  is  before  it  and  what  after  it,  we  know 
not.  If  this  new  teaching  tell  us  aught  certainly  of 
these,  let  us  follow  it."  The  incident  betokens  the 
presence  of  that  imaginative  gift  of  the  early  English 
mind,  which  under  the  touch  of  the  Christian  Scrip- 
ture would  soon  blossom  out  in  Northumbria  into  the 
first  English  poetry. 

From  another  direction,  however,  the  light  broke 
forth  even  more  brilliantly  upon  the  north  of  England. 
It  was  the  flaming  zeal  of  Irish  missionaries — for 
Ireland  had  long  been  Christian,  thanks  to  Patrick  and 
others — that  flashed  out  over  Northumbria.  The 
vigor  of  the  Irish  church  of  the  sixth  and  seventh 
centuries  is  to  this  day  a  marvel  to  the  historians. 
**For  a  time,"  says  Green,  "it  seemed  as  if  the  course 
of  the  world's  history  was  to  be  changed,  as  if  the 
elder  Celtic  race  that  Roman  and  German  had  swept 
before  them  had  turned  to  the  moral  conquest  of  their 
conquerors,  as  if  Celtic  and  not  Latin  Chritianity  was 
to  mould  the  destinies  of  the  Churches  of  the  West."  ^ 

Nor  was  the  growth  of  Irish  Christianity  character- 

2  A  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  Chapter  I,  Section 
III. 


EARLY  RISERS  OF  LITERATURE  43 

ized  by  missionary  zeal  alone:  letters  and  arts  accom- 
panied  it,  and  for  a  time  Durrow  and  Armagh  were 
the  ''universities  of  the  West"  It  is  important  for 
our  theme  to  observe  the  infusion  at  this  point  of 
Celtic  enthusiasm  and  genius  into  the  making  of 
English  literature.  The  great  figures  of  the  Irish  mis- 
sionaries who  are  dimly  seen  moving  upon  the  stage 
of  Northumbrian  life  in  the  seventh  century  seem  as 
much  the  forerunners  of  poetic  literature  as  of  a  mis- 
sionary Gospel.  With  Celtic  fervor  and  imagination 
they  imbibed,  not  only  the  sacrificial  spirit  of  the 
Gospel,  but  also  the  flavor  of  spiritual  romance  with 
which  the  Christian  Scripture  abounds.  And  when 
they  speak  we  seem  to  discover  in  their  words  the 
early  dew  of  Scripture,  caught  in  minds  that  were 
more  than  susceptible  to  the  touch  of  poetry. 

On  the  Island  of  lona  off  the  Scottish  coast  the 
Irish  priest  Columba  established  a  Christian  monas- 
tery, and  from  this  as  a  center  the  tide  of  Irish 
Christianity  flowed  over  the  north  of  England. 
Columba  himself  was  in  love  with  poetry,  and  he 
thought  it  not  unbefitting  a  priest  to  indulge  his  strong 
passion  for  manuscripts.  The  "Book  of  Durrow"  in 
Trinity  College  is  attributed  to  him,  and  there  are  at 
least  three  Latin  hymns,  two  of  them  on  the  Trinity, 
that  may  have  come  from  the  heart  of  the  good  Irish 
missioner. 

One  of  the  most  picturesque  of  the  Celtic  poet- 
preachers  was  Aidan,  who  heeded  the  call  to  North- 
umbria  from  lona  when  others  had  returned  in 
despair,  and  whose  monastery  established  in  the 
island-peninsula  of  Lindisfarne,  later  known  as  Holy 
Island,  became  a  center  of  spiritual  and  literary  light. 


44       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

In  the  days  of  King  Oswald,  forerunner  of  the  greater 
Alfred,  Aidan  wandered  amongst  the  people,  preach- 
ing and  teaching,  and  sowing  the  seeds  of  thought  and 
feeling  in  a  receptive  soil. 

But  the  most  engaging  of  all  the  far-away  figures 
of  the  early  missionaries  in  England  is  Cuthbert,  "the 
most  lovable  of  English  saints."  Following  the  sheep- 
walk  among  the  Scottish  hills,  he  was  even  in  youth 
touched  with  a  "poetic  sensibility"  which  might  have 
made  him  a  poet,  if  he  had  not  become  a  peasant- 
preacher.  He  is  an  example  of  the  temperament 
which  found  in  Christianity  and  its  Book  a  new  world 
of  feeling,  and  fresh  material  for  those  simple  proc- 
esses of  the  popular  mind,  which  underlie  the  making 
of  literature.  As  he  wandered  among  the  people, 
preaching  simply  but  fervently  from  the  Book  of 
books,  he  was  sowing  deep  in  English  soil  the  seeds 
of  literature.  Referring  to  Cuthbert's  country  Green 
the  historian  has  this  to  say — "To-day  the  land  is  a 
land  of  poetry  and  romance.  Cheviot  and  Lammer- 
moor,  Ettrick  and  Teviotdale,  Yarrow  and  Annan- 
water,  are  musical  with  old  ballads  and  border 
minstrelsy."^ 

It  is  not  without  significance  that  we  see  Cuthbert 
in  one  of  the  early  scenes  of  his  life  with  his  teacher 
Boisil,  to  whose  sick-bed  he  had  been  summoned, 
bending  over  the  Gospel  of  John  which  they  read 
together.  Of  like  interest  also  is  the  incident  of  his 
own  last  hours.  When  the  signal  from  Cuthbert's 
island-hermitage  told  his  brethren  at  Lindisfarne  that 
the  saint  was  dying,  it  happened  that  the  monks  were 

«  A  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  Chapter  T,  Section 

in. 


EARLY  RISERS  OF  LITERATURE  45 

singing  the  words  of  a  psalm,  a  prophecy  of  the  day 
when  men  of  Cuthbert's  temperament  would  sing  in 
English  the  refrain  of  Old  Testament  Psalm  and  New 
Testament  lyric. 

Few  more  precious  documents  of  the  past  are  to  be 
seen  anywhere  than  the  famous  "Lindisfarne  Gospels," 
or  "Gospels  of  St.  Cuthbert,"  which  Sir  Robert  Cotton 
placed  with  other  priceless  manuscripts  in  the  British 
Museum.  The  manuscript  belonged  at  one  time  to 
Durham  Cathedral,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  in 
use  by  no  less  a  person  that  Cuthbert  himself.*  It  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  documents  such  as  these  are 
the  real  foundations,  as  they  are  the  early  beginnings, 
of  our  literature.  Over  the  few  scant  pages  of  their 
Psalters  and  Gospels  our  spiritual  and  literary  pro- 
genitors hung,  drinking  deeply  of  that  well  of  inspira- 
tion until  their  very  minds  were  saturated  with 
Biblical  phrase  and  feeling. 

From  what  has  been  said  the  importance  of 
monastic  institutions  in  these  early  centuries  has 
already  been  implied.  The  emergence  of  these  cen- 
ters of  religious  life  in  the  darkness  of  the  newly- 
made  Christian  England  may  be  freely  regarded  as 
one  of  the  providences  of  history,  and  no  student  of 
English  literature  can  afford  to  neglect  them  in  his 
survey.  The  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  constitute  a 
period  of  remarkable  missionary  zeal,  and  the 
monastic  institutions  were  the  natural  centers  and 
promoters  of  the  new  enthusiasm.  Not  only  so — they 
became  also  the  centers  of  learning  and  the  sources  of 
literary  growth.  "All  that  was  spiritual,  poetical,  and 
thoughtful  in  the  Engles  of  the  north  responded  to  the 

*  The  Evolution  of  the  English  Bible,  H.  W.  Hoare,  p.  35. 


46      THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

teaching  of  the  first  Irish  missionaries,  and  the  monas- 
ticism  there  planted  proved  most  favorable  to  the 
refining  of  the  rude  genius  of  the  race.  Poets, 
scholars,  and  apostles  found  their  calling  and  their 
preparation  in  the  religious  communities  that  rose 
quickly  in  the  Northumbrian  field.  Cuthbert,  the  most 
lovable  of  English  saints;  Caedmon,  who  became  the 
first  of  known  English  poets;  Bede,  'the  venerable 
Bede,*  as  he  has  always  been  named  with  reverence; 
Alcuin,  friend,  counselor,  and  teacher  of  Charle- 
magne; these  are  among  the  shining  names  they  had 
placed  on  the  roll  of  great  Englishmen  before  the 
eighth  century  was  closed."^ 

The  student  may  read  in  Green's  illuminative 
volume.  The  Making  of  England,  an  interesting 
account  of  the  spread  of  monastic  institutions  in 
northern  England,  which  the  historian  regards,  despite 
its  ill  effects,  as  "an  effort  of  Englishmen  to  free 
themselves  from  the  trammels  of  their  older  existence 
and  to  find  a  more  social  and  industrial  life."*  It  led 
to  a  new  estimate  of  labor,  for  even  earls  and  nobles 
often  betook  themselves  to  these  religious  houses  and 
manifested  their  humility  by  doing  common  manual 
tasks.  The  labors  of  such  a  house  were  commonly 
divided,  some  laboring  with  their  hands,  and  others 
devoting  themselves  to  reading. 

It  is  in  the  latter  occupation  that  we  see  the  seed- 
plot  of  literature.  The  love  of  letters  goes  with  God's 
Book,  and  even  in  that  early  day,  when  the  Book 
existed  in  parchments  only,  the  passion  for  books 
began  to  possess  the  souls  of  men.    "The  monks  were 

^  History  of  England,  Larned,  p.  31. 
«  Chapter  VIL 


EARLY  RISERS  OF  LITERATURE  47 

the  painters,  the  illuminators,  the  architects,  the 
carvers,  the  gilders,  and  the  bookbinders  of  their 
time."^  An  old  monastic  saying — "A  monastery  with- 
out a  library  is  like  a  castle  without  an  armory" — 
throws  light  upon  the  passionate  feeling  which  Chris- 
tian men  had  in  that  far-away  time — men  whose 
minds  were  fired  by  the  Word  of  God — for  the 
cherishing  of  letters. 

"The  monasteries  were  the  only  respectable  semi- 
naries of  learning  in  the  darker  ages,  and  the  only 
secure  repositories  for  the  sacred  and  profane  treas- 
ures of  antiquity.  The  most  eminent  scholars  which 
England  produced,  both  in  philosophy  and  humanity, 
before  and  even  below  the  twelfth  century,  were 
educated  in  our  religious  houses.  The  encouragement 
given  in  the  English  monasteries  for  transcribing 
books  caused  the  multiplication  and  embellishment  of 
many  copies.  In  every  great  abbey  there  was  an 
apartment  called  the  Scriptorium,  where  many  writers 
were  constantly  employed  in  transcribing,  not  only 
service  books  for  the  choir,  but  books  for  the  library. 
The  whole  process  of  book-making  was  carried  on 
within  the  cloister.  The  writers,  illuminators  and 
binders,  all  followed  their  respective  occupations  in 
the  monastic  habit.'*® 

Mr.  Qiapman  in  his  persuasive  volume,  English 
Literature  in  Account  With  Religion,  refers  to  the 
influence  of  the  monasteries  upon  letters,  calling  it 
for  lack  of  a  better  phrase,  "the  precedent  influence  of 

^  The  Story  of  Ireland,  Lawlers,  p.  49. 

8  Catalogi  Veteres  Librorum  Ecclesiae  Cathedralis  Dunelm, 
publication  of  the  Surties  Society,  edited  by  James  Raine. 
From  the  Preface  by  Beriah  Batfield. 


48      THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

religion  upon  literature."  ^'Monasteries  and  con- 
vents," he  affirms,  "were  for  generations  the  home  and 
refuge  of  letters.  The  Church  has  always  been  the 
nursing-mother  of  literature— often  enough  unwise, 
petulant,  over-anxious  and  sometimes  even  cruel  in 
her  fear,  but  yet  fostering  and  passing  on  from  gener- 
ation to  generation,  if  not  sound  learning  itself,  yet 
the  tools  and  means  for  its  development."®  Monta- 
lembert  also  declares  in  his  Monks  of  the  West  that 
the  monasteries  were  great  centers  of  Hterature. 

It  is  difficult  to  realize  at  so  great  a  distance  the 
influence  of  the  monastic  schools  which  arose  as  by 
magic  under  the  spell  of  devout  and  eager  monks. 
Too  often  the  story  of  monastic  abuses  obscures  the 
real  contribution  of  these  institutions  of  Christianity 
to  the  world's  civilization.  There  can  be  no  mistaking 
the  impetus  they  gave  to  intellectual  life  and  to  litera- 
ture. Latin  culture  flowed  in  by  the  channels  that 
were  now  open  to  Rome,  and  under  Christian  auspices 
literature  began  to  live.  It  was  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  transformations  that  history  has  wit- 
nessed, producing  in  a  few  generations  amongst  an 
unlettered  and  heathen  people  men  who  became  the 
intellectual  lights  of  Europe.  "The  birthplace  of 
English  literature  in  England,"  writes  a  historian,  "is 
thus  within  the  shadow  of  the  Church.  For  centuries 
its  history  centers  about  monasteries  such  as  those 
which  Biscop  planted;  quiet  strongholds  and  retreats 
where  poet,  chronicler,  and  teacher,  nourished  on 
some  fragments  of  past  learning,  were  sheltered  from 
the  coarse  violence  without."^® 

^^Introduction  to  English  Literature,  Pancoast,  p.  32. 


EARLY  RISERS  OF  LITERATURE  49 

But  what  is  even  more  to  the  point  is  the  fact  that 
the  members  of  these  first  EngUsh  cloisters  did  not 
shut  themselves  within  monastic  walls.  Rather  they 
moved  freely  among  the  people,  sometimes  as  wander- 
ing clergy,  again  as  minstrels  with  a  spiritual  motive; 
and  wherever  they  went  they  filled  the  ears  and  hearts 
of  the  people  with  the  sound  of  the  Scripture.  It  must 
have  been  a  very  subtle,  yet  very  powerful  process  of 
education.  At  least  it  was  a  sure  process  of  saturat- 
ing the  popular  mind  with  Biblical  ideals  and  feelings. 
Along  with  heroic  odes  that  echoed  the  sound  of  their 
warlike  history,  there  was  mingled  the  sound  of 
Biblical  ode  and  epic.  In  the  long  centuries  of 
deprivation  in  which  the  people  knew  not  the  comfort- 
ing touch  of  a  book,  nor  even  the  ability  to  read  for 
themselves,  their  ears  became  attuned  nevertheless  to 
that  deep  echo  of  poetry  and  emotion  which  men  of 
sentiment  always  hear  in  the  Bible. 

An  authentic,  as  well  as  interesting,  instance  of  this 
popular  education  is  that  of  Aldhelm,  Abbot  of 
Malmesbury,  and  later  Bishop  of  Sherborne,  whose 
period  covers  the  latter  half  of  the  seventh  century 
and  the  early  years  of  the  eighth  century.  Aldhelm 
studied  under  Hadrian  at  the  Canterbury  school,  and 
then  went  among  the  West-Saxons  to  preach  the 
Gospel.  He  was  still  famous  in  the  day  of  King 
Alfred,  who  told  how  "Aldhelm  won  men  to  heed 
sacred  things  by  taking  stand  as  a  gleeman  and  sing- 
ing English  songs  on  a  bridge."  The  truth  is  that  the 
good  abbot  was  driven  to  this  device,  as  many  a 
modern  preacher  has  been,  by  the  indifference  of  the 
people.  Observing  how  careless  they  were  of  the 
preaching,  and  being  himself  gifted  as  a  musician,  he 


50       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

was  accustomed  to  don  the  garb  of  a  minstrel  and 
wait  on  a  bridge  for  the  peasantry  to  pass,  singing  to 
them  the  Gospel  story  in  fascinating  song.  It  is  an 
engaging  picture  of  this  early  Saxon  poet-preacher 
standing  forth  on  a  bridge  to  sing  the  Scripture  into 
the  hearts  of  the  people.  In  such  a  scene  the  Bible 
appears  early  in  the  making  of  English  literature.  It 
was  Aldhelm  who  was  the  first  translator  of  the 
Psalms  into  Anglo-Saxon  English.  Whether  we 
possess  the  Psalter  of  Aldhelm  in  the  Paris  manu- 
script is  a  matter  of  grave  doubt.^^  It  can  be  truly 
said,  however,  that  the  influence -of  the  Psalms  thus 
early  brought  in  touch  with  English  thought  has  never 
departed.  Says  Prothero  in  his  volume  on  the  Psalms, 
"Apart  from  their  own  transcendent  beauty  and 
universal  truth,  the  Psalms  have  enriched  the  world 
by  the  creation  of  a  literature  which,  century  after 
century,  has  not  only  commanded  the  admiration  of 
sceptics,  but  elevated  the  characters  of  innumerable 
believers,  encouraged  their  weariness,  consoled  their 
sorrows,  lifted  their  doubts,  and  guided  their  wander- 
ing footsteps.^^ 

The  sound  of  Psalmody  indeed  is  heard  everywhere 
in  these  first  centuries  of  Christian  England.  "To 
learn  the  Psalter  by  heart  was,  in  monastic  life,  the 
first  duty  of  a  novice."  Missionary  and  monk,  secular 
priest  and  anchorite,  derived  strength  from  the 
Psalms.  "The  words  lived  in  his  mind;  they  were 
ever  on  his  lip;  in  them  his  thoughts  were  uncon- 
sciously   clothed;    in    them    his    cry    for    help    was 

"  The  Ancestry  of  our  English  Bible,  Ira  M.  Price,  p.  210. 
12  The  Psalms  in  Human  Life,  Rowland  E.  Prothero,  p.  9. 


EARLY  RISERS  OF  LITERATURE  51 

naturally  expressed."^^  "In  such  duties  of  monastic 
life,  whether  homely  or  sacred,  as  making  bread  for 
the  altar,  setting  out  the  relics,  attending  the  death- 
agony  of  a  brother,  taking  places  at  the  refectory,  the 
weekly  washing  of  feet,  the  beginning  and  end  of 
readings  during  meals,  psalms  were  sung  or  recited."^* 

If  the  reader  will  but  try  to  reproduce  to  his  own 
mind  a  state  of  affairs  in  which  men  lived  and  worked, 
met  their  decisions  and  crises,  suffered  their  defeats 
and  won  their  victories,  and  at  length  faced  the  last 
great  enemy  himself,  with  the  ringing  phrases  of  the 
Psalms  filling  their  memories,  and  nerving  their  souls, 
he  will  be  able  to  understand  in  some  measure  the 
shaping  of  the  English  mind  under  the  powerful 
impact  of  the  Scripture,  an  effect  which  could  not  fail 
to  register  itself  in  literature. 

A  popular  infusion  of  Biblical  knowledge  took 
place.  The  minstrelsy  of  the  Teuton  passed  over 
insensibly  into  Christian  song.  A  vernacular  poetry 
soon  arose  which  bore  the  stamp  and  image  of  the 
Word  of  God.^^  Into  the  wistful  feelings  of 
untutored  minds  were  infiltrated  the  strange  uplift  and 
strength  of  the  Book,  and  here  and  there  appeared  the 
blossom  of  poetry  and  romance  upon  an  otherwise 
homely  stock.  The  songs  of  Hebrew  bards  stirred  the 
latent  poetry  of  English  blood.  It  was  the  sort  of 
poetry  that  sings  in  the  blood  before  it  reaches  the 
lip  in  utterance;  and  it  was  inevitable  that  the  sound 
of  English  poetry  would  ere  long  fill  the  land.  It  was 
impossible  that  men  of  English  stock  should  associate 

18  The  Psalms  in  Human  Life,  Rowland  E.  Prothero,  p.  46. 
"Ibid.,  p.  60. 

"^^  The  Evolution  of  the  English  Bible,  H.  W.  Hoare,  pp. 
28-30. 


52       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

themselves  so  closely  for  generations  with  the  Bible 
in  the  intense  quiet  of  the  monastic  houses  that  were 
scattered  throughout  the  country,  without  producing 
surprising  results  in  literature,  results  that  are  flowing 
still.  For  what  is  true  of  the  early  poets  of  the  race, 
is  also  true  of  later  ones— they  have  with  few  excep- 
tions drunk  deeply  at  the  well  of  Scripture. 


SCHOLAR  AND  PEASANT 

"/  was  an  herdman  .  .  .  and  the  Lord  took  me  from 
following  the  flock." — The  Prophet  Amos. 

THE  names  of  four  men  deserve  particular  men- 
tion as  promoters  of  the  growth  of  literature 
in  England  in  the  seventh  century.  These  are 
Theodore  who  was  born  in  St.  Paul's  town  of  Tarsus, 
and  had  studied  Greek  in  Athens;  Benedict  Biscop 
who  was  in  reality  a  Northumbrian  by  birth,  but  had 
made  more  than  one  journey  to  Rome  and  had 
studied  there ;  Adrian  or  Hadrian,  an  African  monk ; 
and  Wilfrid  the  famous  bishop  of  York.  To  trace  the 
influence  of  these  men  would  be  to  reveal  the  springs 
of  English  culture. 

Cut  off  as  England  had  been  for  at  least  a  century 
and  a  half  from  the  life  and  intellect  of  the  Con- 
tinent, it  was  Christianity  that  brought  it  again  into 
contact  with  the  outer  world.  Strangely  enough  the 
light  of  Eastern  learning  which  had  been  over- 
whelmed in  the  West  by  the  catastrophe  of  Rome 
and  the  advent  of  the  Dark  Ages,  was  rekindled  in 
far-away  England,  a  new-born  land  on  the  very  verge 
of  Christendom. 

Theodore  of  Tarsus,  one  of  the  four  just  men- 
tioned, became  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  the  year 
669,  and  there,   assisted  by  his   friend  Hadrian,  he 

53 


54       THE  BIBLEIIN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

established  and  fostered  a  school  which  soon  became  a 
center  of  the  new  culture.  At  a  time  when  Greek 
was  becoming  a  memory  in  Western  Europe  the 
pupils  of  this  new  English  school  were  being  taught 
this  language.  From  Canterbury,  where  of  course  all 
studies  centered  in  the  Bible,  the  light  shone  through- 
out England.  To  this  center  of  learning  aspiring 
spirits  came  to  light  their  torches,  and  returned  to  the 
darkness  of  their  own  provinces,  creating  wherever 
they  went  new  circles  of  light.  Such  an  one  was 
Aldhelm  whose  story  we  have  already  briefly  recited. 

The  labors  of  Benedict  Biscop  and  Wilfrid  bore 
fruit  especially  in  Northumbria,  and  this  northern 
province  was  for  a  time  "the  literary  center  of 
Western  Europe."^  England's  debt  to  Biscop  is 
incalculable.  It  is  said  that  he  visited  Rome  six  times, 
"now  seeking  architects,  masons  and  materials  to 
beautify  his  churches;  now  bringing  with  him  musi- 
cians or  instructors  in  ritual;  now  gathering  relics, 
pictures,  images  and  vestments;  now  collecting  the 
manuscripts  which  made  his  libraries  famous."^ 

An  educational  era  began  in  the  north,  with  the 
monastic  schools  as  centers  of  influence.  The  passion 
of  books  possessed  men,  and  manuscripts  were 
treasured  like  gold.  Books  were  brought  in  consider- 
able number  from  Rome,  and  the  schools  at  Lindis- 
farne,  York,  Wearmouth,  Tynemouth,  Jarrow  and 
Whitby  wielded  wide  influence. 

When  the  work  of  Northumbria  for  Christianity  in 
the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  is  summed  up,  it  is 
possible  to   say,  not  only  that  it  had  wOn  England 

1  The  Making  of  England,  J.  R.  Green,  Chapter  VIIL 

2  The  Psalms  in  Human  Life,  R.  E.  Prothero,  pp.  62,  63. 


SCHOLAR  AND  PEASANT  55 

from  heathendom  to  the  Christian  Church,  but  to  say 
also,  as  the  historian  Green  does,  that  it  had  given 
England  a  new  poetic  literature.^  These  northern 
schools  became  intensive  centers  of  culture,  and  the 
best  proof  of  this  is  found  in  the  fact  that  they  pro- 
duced such  scholars  as  Bede  and  Alcuin.  "It  may  be 
said",  writes  Bishop  Stubbs,  "that  the  civilization  and 
learning  of  the  eighth  century  rested  in  the  monastery 
which  he  (Biscop)  founded,  which  produced  Bede, 
and  through  him,  the  school  of  York,  Alcuin,  and  the 
Carolingian  school,  on  which  the  culture  of  the  Middle 
Ages  was  based."*  So  far-reaching  in  the  judgment 
of  students  was  the  influence  of  the  schools  of 
northern  England  where  Christian  monks  studied  and 
copied  and  illuminated  the  Word  of  God. 

It  was  for  Bishop  Wilfrid  of  York,  whose  passion 
for  books  was  like  that  of  others,  although  his  per- 
sonal history  is  written  in  storms — it  was  for  him  that 
some  skilful  Anglo-Saxon  scribe  or  scribes  of  the 
seventh  century  made  a  beautiful  copy  of  the  Gospels, 
since  called  "The  Golden  Gospels,"  on  purple  vellum 
in  letters  of  burnished  gold — a  precious  book  out  of 
the  long  past  which  has  come  at  length  to  rest  in  the 
palatial  library  of  an  American  collector.**  In  that  age 
Christian  men  were  content  to  make  copies  of  the 
Word  of  God.  The  time  soon  came  when  their  ambi- 
tion broadened  and  they  aimed  to  carry  the  wealth  of 
Scripture  over  into  the  making  of  literature. 

^  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  Chapter  I,  Section 
III. 

*  Quoted   in    Smith's   Dictionary   of   Christian   Biography, 
Vol.  I,  p.  309. 

^].  Pierpont  Morgan,  New  York.    The  "Golden  Gospels," 
were  given  to  Henry  VIII  by  Pope  Leo  X. 


56       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Streonshealh  was  the  ancient  name  of  a  seventh 
century  abbey  that  crowned  the  cHffs  above  the  rugged 
Northumbrian  shore.  It  was  founded  by  Saint  Hilda 
about  the  year  657.  When  the  Danes  destroyed  the 
abbey  in  867  they  gave  the  town  a  new  name,  Whitby, 
or  White-town.  The  magnificent  ruins  now  seen  on 
the  cliff  above  the  town  belong  to  a  second  abbey 
which  was  built  on  the  site  of  Hilda's  house.  It  was 
Whitby  that  was  the  scene  of  the  famous  Synod,  when 
the  disputed  questions  of  the  tonsure  and  the  date  of 
Easter  were  finally  settled,  and  the  life  of  the  English 
church  was  turned  from  Irish  into  Roman  channels — 
an  occasion  on  which  it  is  said  Bishop  Wilfrid's 
eloquence  was  irresistible.  The  busy  docks  and 
herring  fisheries  of  the  modern  Whitby  seem  a  far  cry 
from  the  day  when  in  the  thatched  house  on  the 
cliffs  the  sound  of  Psalmody  was  heard  all  day  long. 

Hilda  herself  must  have  been  a  woman  of  strong 
personality.  She  was  of  royal  race,  and  her  name 
casts  a  spell  over  early  English  history  to  this  day. 
It  is  to  Whitby  we  must  go  to  look  upon  the  real 
cradle  of  English  literature.  For  great  as  was  the 
fame  of  the  Abbess  Hilda,  her  fame  has  suffered  an 
eclipse  by  one  who  came,  like  his  Lord,  from  the 
manger  and  the  stall. 

Whitby  was  the  home  of  Caedmon.  His  name  is 
at  the  same  time  a  prototype  of  English  literature,  and 
an  example  of  the  profound  and  moving  effect  of  the 
Scripture  upon  latent  genius.  In  Caedmon  we  see  the 
prolific  and  passionate  material  of  the  Bible  passing 
through  the  Celtic- Saxon  mold  into  a  new  English 
form.  He  comes  forth  out  of  the  deep  past,  yet  his 
appearance  is  that  of  a  herald  of  a  great  future.    In 


SCHOLAR  AND  PEASANT  57 

a  sense,  as  Hoare  has  said,  "he  belongs  almost  as 
much  to  the  history  of  the  English  Bible  as  to  the 
history  of  English  literature."**  A  deep  vein  of  poetry 
lay  hidden  within  his  untutored  mind ;  it  was  the  Bible 
that  inspired  and  defined  his  utterance.  The  earliesi 
of  English  poets,  called  for  his  rugged  and  natural 
vigor  "the  Amos  of  English  literature,"  he  was  the 
first  to  give  utterance  in  rude  but  powerful  verse  to 
the  poetic  grandeur  and  lofty  imagery  of  the  Scrip- 
ture. The  passion  of  his  verse  reflects  the  Hebrew 
fervor,  but  it  contains  also  the  new  beat  of  the 
Teutonic  measure  of  feeling.  In  this  unexpected  poet 
of  the  seventh  century  we  see  the  prophecy  of  a  long 
line  of  English  singers,  in  whom  new  realms  of  fancy 
will  unfold,  and  in  whose  hand  fresh  materials  of 
poetry  will  find  play. 

How  unheralded  this  truly  Biblical  poet  was  the 
fascinating  story  in  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History 
relates.  Like  Amos  who  was  called  "from  following 
the  flock"  to  prophesy,  Caedmon  was  called  from 
among  the  cattle  to  stand  forth  and  sing.  His  story, 
though  often  told,  loses  none  of  its  charm  by  repeti- 
tion. Caedmon  was  a  man  of  "secular  habit"  in  the 
monastery  at  Whitby,  and  was  well  advanced  in  years 
when  the  great  event  of  his  life  transpired.  From  long 
listening  to  the  monastic  services  his  mind  had  become 
saturated  with  the  Scripture ;  but  he  lacked  the  power 
to  utter  his  thought.  In  the  evening  when  the  work 
was  done  and  all  gathered  in  the  hall,  and  the  song 
went  around  the  circle  as  the  harp  was  passed  to  each 
one  in  turn,  Caedmon  often  rose  and  left  the  place, 
because  he  could  not  sing.  One  night  when  this  had 
^  The  Evolution  of  the  English  Bible,  H.  W.  Hoare,  p.  25. 


58       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

occurred,  he  went  away  to  the  stable  and  lay  down 
on  the  hay  to  sleep  among  the  cattle. 

As  he  slept  One  appeared  to  him  and  said,  "Sing, 
Caedmon,  some  song  to  me."  '*But  I  cannot  sing," 
was  his  answer.  "For  this  cause  I  left  the  feast  and 
came  hither."  "But  you  shall  sing,"  said  the  Visitor. 
"What  shall  I  sing?"  he  inquired.  "Sing  the  begin- 
ning of  created  things,"  the  Person  of  his  dreams 
instructed  him. 

And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  when  Caedmon  told  the 
Abbess  Hilda  in  the  morning  about  his  dream,  she  and 
the  brethren  concluded  that  "heavenly  grace  had  been 
given  him  by  the  Lord."  Whereupon  they  gave  to 
Caedmon  a  passage  of  the  Bible,  bidding  him  put  it 
into  poetry,  and  to  their  great  surprise  he  returned 
the  next  day  with  the  passage  rendered  in  excellent 
Anglo-Saxon  verse. 

Thus  Caedmon  began,  according  to  Bede*s  story, 
and  little  by  little  he  wrought  the  Biblical  account  into 
a  rude  but  wonderful  Paraphrase.  "He  sang,"  says 
Bede,  "of  the  creation  of  the  world,  of  the  origin  of 
man,  and  of  all  the  history  of  Israel;  of  their  depar- 
ture from  Egypt  and  entering  into  the  Promised 
Land;  of  the  incarnation,  passion,  resurrection  and 
ascension  of  Christ ;  of  the  terror  of  future  judgment, 
the  horror  of  hell  pangs,  and  the  joys  of  heaven." 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  men  of  his  day 
regarded  it  as  a  sign  of  supernatural  power  that 
this  common  man  should  break  forth  in  song.  To  us 
it  appears  to  be  a  remarkable  example  of  the  power  of 
the  Bible  to  saturate  and  inspire  the  mind  of  one  who 
was  possessed  of  natural  though  latent  gifts.  It  was 
the  Bible  that  produced  this  first  English  singer;  its 


SCHOLAR  AND  PEASANT  59 

images  fastened  themselves  upon  his  poetic  imagina- 
tion; its  scenes  of  battle  and  of  struggle  appealed  to 
the  fiery  temper  of  his  Saxon  blood;  its  grandeur 
awed  him  and  its  mystery  possessed  him. 

The  old  Teutonic  minstrelsy  lived  again  in  this 
Saxon  bard,  only  nov;^  it  bore  upon  it  a  deep  mark  of 
Biblical  impression.  Caedmon  is  the  early  Milton  of 
the  race.  The  same  Hebraic  fervor  is  in  him  in 
rudiment  that  later  possessed  the  Puritan  poet. 
"Milton's  Satan,"  says  Taine,  "exists  already  in  Caed- 
mon, as  the  picture  exists  in  the  sketch."  DTsraeli 
refers  to  him  explicitly  as  the  "Milton  of  our  fore- 
fathers." It  is  not  improbable  indeed  that  Milton's 
epical  presentation  of  Scriptural  scenes  found  its  re- 
mote suggestion  in  the  rude  alliterations  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  poet.  In  both  the  earlier  and  later  poet  there 
is  the  same  broad  canvas  of  Scripture  and  the  same 
vivid  picturing  of  great  events.  In  Caedmon  the  ark 
is  "the  floating-house,  the  greatest  of  floating-cham- 
bers, the  wooden  fortress,  the  moving  roof,  the  cavern, 
the  great  sea-chest."  When  he  describes  Pharaoh  and 
his  host  in  the  Red  Sea  it  is  in  such  dramatic  language 
as  this: — "The  folk  was  affrighted,  the  flood-dread 
seized  on  their  sad  souls :  ocean  wailed  with  death,  the 
mountain  heights  were  with  blood  besteamed,  the  sea 
foamed  gore,  crying  was  in  the  waves,  the  water 
full  of  weapons,  a  death-mist  rose."  A  very  active 
imagination  is  here  at  work  with  the  Biblical  material. 

The  Saxon  spirit  of  adventure  and  warfare  found 
abundant  material  in  the  Bible.  The  Old  Testament 
with  its  stirring  scenes  appealed  to  the  Germanic  sense 
of  mystery  and  grandeur.  Caedmon's  mind  was  the 
workshop,  or  better  the  laboratory,  in  which  we  see 


60       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

for  the  first  time  the  mingUng  of  native  aptitudes  with 
the  material  of  the  Scripture.  He  lived  probably 
about  the  year  670,  and  he  is  rightly  described  as  the 
father  of  English  poetry.  That  the  first  English 
singer  drew  his  inspiration  so  directly  from  the 
fountain-head  of  Scripture  is  a  memorable  fact  for  the 
student  of  English  literature.  From  that  day  to  this 
the  Bible  has  been  the  copious  inspirer  of  English 
poetry. 

It  was  inevitable,  of  course,  that  the  critics  would 
deal  harshly  with  Bede's  beautiful  story  of  the  call  of 
Caedmon,  and  the  origin  of  his  Paraphrase.  But 
whether  the  Caedmon  legend  be  accepted  or  not,  there 
is  a  considerable  body  of  literature  remaining  which 
must  be  accounted  for,  and  which  the  critics  them- 
selves are  willing  to  describe  as  Caedmonian.  This 
embodies  the  sacred  epics  known  as  Genesis,  Exodus, 
Daniel,  Christ,  and  Satan,  which  are  contained  in  a 
West  Saxon  manuscript  of  the  tenth  century,  now  in 
the  Bodleian  Library,  Oxford,  and  which  corresponds 
with  the  substance  of  Caedmon's  Paraphrase  as  de- 
scribed by  the  Venerable  Bede.  The  figure  of  the  first 
English  poet  is  dim  and  distant  to  be  sure,  but  his 
identity  is  scarcely  to  be  doubted,  albeit  legend  has 
been  busy  with  his  name.  As  the  first  of  our  English 
singers  he  found  his  way  to  the  deep  well  of  Scripture, 
and  a  long  line  of  poets  has  followed  him  in  a  like 
pilgrimage  to  the  Word  of  God.  No  student  of  Eng- 
lish literature  can  read  the  simple  lines  of  Caedmon's 
"Glory-Father"  without  discovering  at  once  the  source 
of  that  thrill  which  has  been  felt  throughout  the  gen- 
erations of  English  poetry. 


SCHOLAR  AND  PEASANT  61 

"Now  we  should  praise 
The  Guardian  of  the  Heavenly  Kingdom; 
The  Mighty-Creator, 
And  the  thoughts  of  his  mind, 
Glorious  Father  of  his  works."  ^ 

We  have  endeavored  thus  to  reproduce  to  the  mind 
as  far  as  possible  the  background  of  English  life  and 
literature.  That  background  was  created  in  large 
part  by  Celtic  and  Saxon  history,  and  was  mediated 
and  controlled  by  certain  influences  of  heredity  and 
environment.  The  power  that  moulded  these  natural 
conditions,  however,  was  exerted  by  the  Bible.  It 
entered  very  deeply  into  the  life  of  the  people.  The 
common  folk  acquired  a  Biblical  trend  of  thought. 
The  Scripture  narratives  appealed  mightily  to  their 
imagination  and  touched  their  heroic  spirit.  Their 
"wistful  curiosity  about  the  unseen  world"  found  an 
inspiring  answer  in  the  Bible,  and  minstrelsy  and  song 
sprang  irresistibly  into  being.  Both  early  and  late  the 
Bible  has  made  poetry.  Wherever  it  is  read  the  heart 
begins  to  sing. 

^A  fragment  preserved  in  Alfred's  Saxon  Version  of 
Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History.  It  is  a  paraphrase  of  the  first 
verse  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  is  pronounced  by 
Sharon  Turner  in  his  History  of  Anglo-Saxons  (HI,  260) 
the  most  ancient  piece  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  we  possess. 
See  The  History  of  the  English  Bible  by  Blackford  Condit, 
p.  24. 


VI 

AN  EARLY  BIBLICAL  POET 

"That  silent  literature  which  is,  as  it  were,  the  back- 
ground of  the  literature  which  is  written." — Stopford 
Brooke. 

IN  the  preceding  chapters  we  have  endeavored  to 
see  something  of  the  background  of  early  Eng- 
lish life  out  of  which  emerged  the  first  literature 
of  the  English  people.  For  the  most  part  there  is  a 
great  silence,  a  silence  nevertheless  that  grows  con- 
stantly fuller  and  more  intense,  and  that  becomes 
articulate  from  time  to  time  in  audible  voices. 

It  would  require  a  skill  altogether  too  delicate  to 
describe  the  ways  by  which  the  minds  of  men  were 
informed  and  inspired  for  the  task  of  laying  the 
foundations  of  English  literature.  There  must  have 
been  with  the  first  writers  a  profound  unconscious- 
ness of  what  they  were  doing.  Nevertheless  there  is  an 
engaging  and  impressive  grandeur  about  such  far- 
away figures  as  Caedmon  and  Aldhelm,  that  makes 
a  glory  in  the  night.  The  historian  Green  had  no 
need  to  apologize  for  the  fault  of  passing  by  with 
little  space  the  conventional  figures  of  military  and 
political  history  and  giving  larger  room  to  "the 
figures  of  the  missionary,  the  poet,  the  printer,  the 
merchant,  or  the  philosopher."    Such  as  these  are  the 


AN  EARLY  BIBLICAL  POET  63 

real  makers  of  the  nation,  and  it  is  difficult  to  imagine 
a  more  interesting  setting  of  circumstance  and 
environment  than  that  which  contributed  to  the  mak- 
ing of  our  first  poets. 

We  have  already  dwelt  upon  the  familiar  and  ever 
impressive  story  of  the  bringing  of  the  Book  to  Eng- 
land, and  have  remarked  upon  the  powerful  Provi- 
dence that  directed  the  early  entrance  of  this  wedge  of 
light  into  English  life.  We  have  seen  the  energy  of 
the  new  Faith  directing  at  once  the  formation  of 
powerful  centers  of  light  and  learning  at  Canterbury 
in  the  south,  and  in  Northumbria  and  York  in  the 
north.  We  have  seen  also  the  dimly-outlined  figures 
of  the  Celtic  missionaries,  such  as  Aidan  and  Cuth- 
bert,  who  brought  their  racial  fire  and  fancy  as  a  con- 
tribution to  the  elements  that  were  already  gathering 
for  a  nation's  life  and  literature.  We  have  seen  how 
the  monasteries,  especially  in  the  north,  became  cen- 
ters of  an  intensive  culture  that  fed  upon  the  Scrip- 
ture; and  we  have  seen  also  how  not  only  those  who 
dwelt  within  these  houses,  but  the  people  roundabout, 
were  becoming  saturated  with  the  Word  of  God. 
Unexpected  as  the  coming  of  Caedmon,  the  first  poet, 
was,  we  must  have  felt  that  he  was  a  natural  product 
of  conditions  created  by  the  schools.  Given  the  native 
genius  and  temperament  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  with 
infiltrations  also  of  Celtic  imagination,  the  impact  of 
Biblical  material  was  certain  to  produce  an  early  poet. 
That  poet  was  Caedmon,  the  farm-servant  of  Whitby. 

Not  long  after  Caedmon  another  voice  of  a  poet, 
sweet  with  the  cadence  of  Scripture,  is  heard  in  the 
north  of  England.  This  is  Cynewulf,  about  whom 
the  same  uncertainties  exist  as  to  authorship,  and  even 


64       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

identity,  that  have  clouded  the  name  of  the  great  bard 
of  Avon.  Be  it  said  however,  that  there  is  a  cycle  of 
English  verse  beginning  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
seventh  century  and  extending  to  the  early  part  of 
the  ninth,  representing  the  flourishing  period  of 
Northumbrian  literature,  that  deserves  a  better  fate 
than  that  of  remaining  forever  anonymous. 

The  subjects  of  these  poems  are  nearly  always 
religious,  and  usually  scriptural.  Metrical  para- 
phrases of  the  Psalms  are  frequent,  and  the  poem 
''Judith"  which  contains  a  description  of  the  killing 
of  Holofemes,  is  based  on  the  Apocrypha.  Many  of 
these  poems  are  doubtless  little  more  than  vagrant 
products,  but  even  these  issued  from  that  silent  store- 
house of  experience  and  emotion  which  the  Bible,  by 
a  gradual  process  of  percolation  and  absorption,  was 
creating  in  the  popular  mind.  Moreover  the  period 
shows  signs  at  least  of  that  intellectual  constructive- 
ness  which  is  almost  certain  to  ensue  upon  close  popu- 
lar contact  with  the  Bible.  It  is  impossible  that  the 
obscure  poet  Cynewulf  should  have  written  all  the 
poems  that  have  been  assigned  to  him,  but  there  are 
three  at  least,  and  these  very  notable  indeed,  "Juliana," 
"Christ,"  and  "Elene,"  which  may  be  credited  to  his 
name.^ 

iThe  titles  of  other  poems  (Cynewulfs?)  are  "The  Dream 
of  the  Holy  Rood,"  "Andreas,"  "Guthlac,"  "The  Fates  of  the 
Apostles"  ("Andreas"  in  fact  is  a  part  of  the  last  named). 
"Christ,"  and  "Juliana"  are  contained  in  the  Exeter  Book. 
"Elene,"  or  "The  Finding  of  the  Cross,"  is  found  in  the 
Vercelli  Manuscript.  "The  Dream  of  the  Holy  Rood"  is  pre- 
fixed to  "Elene."  We  append  here  the  acrostic  passage  from 
"Christ,"  containing  the  name  of  the  poet,  in  the  English 
translation  as  given  by  Bishop  Stubbs  ip  The  Christ  of  Eng- 


AN  EARLY  BIBLICAL  POET  65 

Little  is  known  of  Cynewulf,  except  that  he  was  a 
Northumbrian,  born  early  in  the  eighth  century,  and 
educated  probably  in  one  of  the  northern  monasteries, 
Whitby,  Jarrow,  Lindisfarne,  or  Wearmouth.  Obscure 
though  he  is,  Cynewulf  is  claimed  not  only  by  North- 
umbria,  but  also  by  Wessex,  and  by  East  Anglia. 
Professor  Cook  of  Yale  University  thinks  that  he  may 
have  been  identical  with  a  certain  Cynulf,  a  priest  of 
Dunwich,  a  seaport  on  the  East-Anglian  coast,  and 
Dean  Stubbs  has  given  some  support  to  this  theory. 
Cynewulf,  unlike  Caedmon,  was  an  educated  man. 
Caedmon  knew  no  Latin,  and  was  compelled  to  sing  in 
English  verse.  "Cynewulf,"  as  Professor  Cook  has 
said,  "is  the  first  Christian  poet  who,  being  thoroughly 
conversant  with  Latin,  deliberately  adopted  the  ver- 
nacular as  the  vehicle  for  a  considerable  body  of 
poetry,  and  in  this  showed  himself  at  once  a  good 
scholar,  a  good  Christian,  and  a  good  patriot." 

In  the  library  of  Exeter  Cathedral  there  is  an 
ancient  roll  of  manuscript  that  is  known  as  "The 
Exeter  Book."  It  was  placed  there  in  the  year  1071 
by  Leofric,  the  first  Bishop  of  Exeter.     Its  contents 

lish  Poetry,  note  4,  p.  38  (Hulsean  lectures  given  at  Cambridge 
University,  1904-5.    The  first  lecture  is  devoted  to  Cynewulf). 
C.    Then  the  keen  shall  quake :  he  shall  hear  the  Lord, 
The  Heaven's  ruler,  utter  words  of  wrath 
To  those  who  in  the  world  obeyed  Him  ill, 
While  they  might  solace  find  more  easily 
Y.N.    for  their  Yearning  and  their  Need;  Many  afeard 
shall  wearily  await  upon  that  plain 
what  penalty  he  will  adjudge  to  them 
W.     for  their  deeds.    The  Winsomeness  of  earthly  gauds 
U.     Shall  then  be  changed.    In  days  of  yore  Unknown 
L.    Lake-floods  embraced  the  region  of  life's  joy 
F.    and  all  earth's  Fortune. 


66       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

have  a  thrilling  interest  for  the  student  of  literature. 
In  the  Catalogue  it  is  described  by  a  contemporary 
Anglo-Saxon  hand  as  "a  mickle  English  book  on  all 
sorts  of  things  wrought  in  verse.'*  The  first  place  in 
this  manuscript  is  given  to  Cynewulf's  "Christ,"  which 
Dean  Stubbs  refers  to  as  "the  oldest  Christiad  of 
modern  Europe." 

In  this  poem  the  influence  of  the  New  Testament 
story  is  everywhere  present.  The  genius  of  this  far- 
away English  poet  is  lighted  up  as  by  a  supernatural 
illumination.^  The  light  of  God  in  the  face  of  Christ 
falls  upon  one  whose  poetic  gift  is  the  prophecy  of 
English  poetry  in  the  long  centuries  to  come.  Cyne- 
wulf  is  properly  described  as  the  early  Tennyson  of 
English  poetry,  or  better  still,  as  the  early  Browning, 
for  there  is  in  his  poetry  something  of  Browning's 
mysterious  enchantment.  He  is  not  the  poet  of  the 
obvious,  but  rather  of  the  unseen  and  the  imaginative. 
Already  in  him  we  catch  the  note  of  deep  emotion 
which  is  so  frequently  heard  in  English  poetry.  The 
tale  of  the  Christ  expands  in  his  hands  and  becomes 
a  story  of  dramatic  literary  power.  "God  himself," 
he  says,  "unlocked  the  power  of  poetry  in  my  breast." 

The  significance  of  the  new  poetry  in  contrast  with 
the  older  pagan  poetry  is  at  once  apparent  in  Cyne- 
wulf.  "The  poetry  of  the  past  drew  its  elements  only 
from  war,  nature-myths,  and  ancestral  heroism.  The 
new  poetry,  or  the  new  poetic  feeling,  drew  its  ele- 
ments from  the  whole  of  human  life,  entered  into  all 

2  A  single  portion  of  Cynewulf  s  "Christ,"  called  "The  Har- 
rowing of  Hell,"  contains  references  to  nine  books  of  the 
Bible.  See  Biblical  Quotations  in  Old  English  Prose  Writers, 
A.  S.  Cook,  p.  87. 


AN  EARLY  BIBLICAL  POET  67 

the  outgoings  of  the  human  heart,  found  its  subjects 
in  the  common  doings  of  daily  Ufe/'^  Not  that  the 
old  subjects  are  not  renewed.  "All  the  old  subjects 
live  again,"  says  Stubbs,  "in  his  pages — battle  and 
voyage,  mead-hall  and  race-course,  jewels  and  fair 
women — but  subordinated  to  his  higher  purpose, 
heightened  and  transfigured  by  the  vision  of  the 
eternal  behind  the  temporal."  To  Cynewulf  Christ 
stands  a  living,  moving  and  loving  Personality,  "the 
Strong  Son  of  God,  Immortal  Love,"  of  Tennyson's 
later  "In  Memoriam."  The  echoes  of  Psalm, 
Prophecy,  Epistle  and  Apocalypse  are  in  such  dra- 
matic lines  as  these — 

"Lo,  the  Holy  Hero — warrior  King  of  Glory, 
He  the  Helm  of  Heaven,  hath  arrayed  the  war 
Right  against  his  ancient  foes,  with  his  only  might. 

4(  4t  ♦  *  * 

Now  will  he  seek  the  spirit's  throne  of  grace, 
He,  the  Savior  of  souls,  the  proper  bairn  of  God, 
After  his  war-play!  Forward  now,  ye  comrades, 
Frankly  march  along !    Open,  O  ye  gates ! 
He  will  into  you.     He,  of  all  the  wielder, 
He,  the  City's  King — He  Creation's  Lord, 
Now  his  folk  will  lead,  reft  from  the  devils, 
To  the  joy  of  joys,  by  his  own  victory." 

The  writer  of  these  vivid  lines  had  read  the  Gospels. 
He  must  also  have  pondered  deeply  upon  the  Apostle 
Paul's  description  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  of 
the  personal  glory  and  triumph  of  Christ,  who 
despoiled  the  principalities  and  powers  and  made  a 
show  of  them  openly.  Whether  he  became  a  monk  and 
a  priest,  as  tradition  reports,  or  not,  we  cannot  fully 

^  Early  English  Literature,  Stopford  Brooke,  Vol.  I,  p.  266. 


68       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

determine.  It  is  evident  however,  that  he  read  the 
Bible  eagerly,  and  filled  his  mind  to  overflowing  with 
its  language  and  incident.  His  rich  affluence  of  senti- 
ment, his  picturesque  and  vivid  presentation  of  the 
themes,  his  dramatic  conception  of  the  exalted  facts 
of  the  Gospel,  all  betoken  his  deep  conversance  with 
the  Word.  The  quickening  effect  of  the  Bible  upon 
native  genius  finds  in  Cynewulf  a  notable  example. 
It  was  to  him  the  seed-plot  of  ideas,  it  furnished  rich 
material  for  his  imagination,  it  offered  also  such 
norms  and  rubrics  of  expression  as  grew  in  the  poet's 
hands  into  glowing  forms  of  literary  grace  and  power. 

The  naturalization  of  the  Bible  in  English  life  and 
literature  had  now  begun,  and  we  shall  see  the  pro- 
cess continuing  throughout  the  generations.  "Con- 
sidering the  naturalization — far  more  complete  than  in 
any  other  country — which  the  Bible  was  to  undergo  in 
England,  and  the  extent  to  which  English  literature 
was  to  be  permeated  by  it,  the  derivation  of  the 
earliest  Anglo-Saxon  poems  from  the  Scriptures  is  a 
phenomenon  of  the  deepest  significance."* 

Cynewulf  sees  in  his  poetic  vision  the  white  hands 
of  Christ  pierced  with  nails.  To  him  the  iron  nails 
shine  like  stars  and  glitter  like  jewels.  To  him  also 
Christ  is  a  veritable  sunburst  out  of  the  East,  flood- 
ing the  world  with  day.  No  wonder  Dean  Stubbs  con- 
fesses that  upon  his  first  reading  of  Cynewulf's 
"Christ,"  he  was  "astonished  at  the  lofty  sublimity  and 
power  of  this  great  Christian  epic  of  the  Northern 
Church  in  the  eighth  century:  this  noble  story  of 
our  salvation  with  its  trumpet-tongued  passages  of 

^Illustrated  History  of  English  Literature,  Garnett  and 
Gosse,  p.  24. 


AN  EARLY  BIBLICAL  POET  69 

joy  and  piety:  its  pathetic,  wailing  lyrics  of  passion- 
ate prayer  and  supplication:  its  vivid,  dramatic  pic- 
tures, its  rushing  choric  outbursts  of  praise  and 
victory.^ 

The  poem  is  divided  into  three  parts,  the  Nativity, 
the  Ascension,  and  the  Day  of  Judgment.  The  invo- 
cation at  the  opening  thus  addresses  Christ: — 

"O  King!  Thou  art  the  wall-stone, 
which  of  old  the  workmen 
from  their  work  rejected! 
Well  it  thee  beseemeth 
that  Thou  hold  the  headship 
of  this  Hall  of  Glory, 
and  should'st  join  together 
with  a  fastening  firm 
the  broad-spaced  walls 
of  the  flint  unbreakable 
all  fitly  framed  together; 
that  among  earth's  dwellers      / 
all  with  sight  of  eyes 
may  forever  wonder: 
O  Prince  of  glory! 
now  through  skill  and  wisdom 
manifest  Thy  handiwork, 
true-fast,  and  firm-set 
In  sovran  splendor." 

It  is  the  genius  of  a  true  poet  that  here  seizes  upon 
the  New  Testament  affirmations  of  the  Headship  of 
Christ,  and  weaves  them  together  with  dramatic  im- 
pressiveness.  A  dialogue  ensues  in  which  Mary  the 
Virgin  and  Joseph,  with  the  children,  sing  of  the  In- 
carnation, a  scene  which  Dean  Stubbs  truly  character- 
izes as  "the  first  dawning  so  to  say  in  our  literature 
of  the  Mystery  Play  and  the  sequent  English  drama." 

«  The  Christ  of  English  Poetry,  p.  15. 


L 


70      THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

"Indeed,"  he  adds,  "I  think  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  the  sweet  and  tender  grace,  the  humiUty  and 
loving  kindness  of  the  Virgin,  her  maidenhood,  her 
motherhood,  as  pictured  in  this  poem  of  Cynewulf's, 
and  in  the  pages  of  many  another  EngUsh  poet  down 
to  Chaucer,  became  for  the  men  of  mediaeval  England 
the  most  vivid  and  beautiful  Christian  ideal  that  filled 
the  minds  of  men  after  the  image  of  Christ."® 

Often  the  poem  rises  to  great  heights  of  dramatic 
fervor,  as  in  the  judgment  scene,  where  a  blood-red 
Cross  is  pictured  standing  on  the  Hill  of  Zion,  and  in 
the  lurid  light  Christ  turns  to  the  Cross  and  pointing 
to  himself  hanging  there,  addresses  the  multitudes  in 
the  Valley  of  Decision : — 

"See  now  the  deadly  wounds  they  made  of  yore 
Upon  my  hands  and  e'en  upon  my  feet — 
The  gory  wound,  the  gash  upon  my  side, 
O  how  uneven  between  us  two  the  reckoning." 

At  the  end  of  the  poem  the  poet  pictures  Heaven  in 
exalted  language: — 

"There  is  angels'  song  bliss  of  the  blessed. 
There  is  the  dear  face  of  the  Lord  Eternal 
To  the  blessed  brighter  than  all  the  sun's  beaming, 
There  is  love  of  the  loved  ones,  life  without  death's  end: 
Merry  man's  multitude,  youth  without  age. 
Glory  of  God's  chivalry,  health  without  pain, 
Rest  for  right  doers,  rest  without  toil. 
Day  without  darkness,  bliss  without  bale. 
Peace  between  friends,  peace  without  jealousy. 
Love  that  envieth  not,  in  the  union  of  the  saints. 
For  the  blessed  in  Heaven,  nor  hunger  nor  thirst, 
Nor  sleep,  nor  sickness,  nor  sun's  heat, 

«  The  Christ  of  EngUsh  Poetry,  pp.  19,  20. 


AN  EARLY  BIBLICAL  POET  71 

Nor  cold,  nor  care,  but  the  happy  company. 

Fairest  of  all  hosts  shall  ever  enjoy 

Their  sovran's  grace  and  glory  with  the  King."^ 

If  the  beauty  of  this  early  English  poem  Impresses 
us,  we  must  not  fail  to  realize  that  its  beauty  is  the 
beauty  of  the  Bible.  Its  imagery  is  that  of  the  Gos- 
pels and  the  Epistles,  and  the  Apocalypse,  not  without 
a  strong  admixture,  of  course,  of  Saxon  and  Celtic 
feeling.  It  is  the  product  of  a  mind  steeped  in  the 
thoughts  and  visions  of  the  Word  of  God.  Difficult 
as  it  is  to  trace  in  full  the  identity  of  Cynewulf,  it  is 
very  clear  that  the  hand  that  wrought  with  such  fine 
literary  workmanship  to  produce  "Christ,"  "Elene," 
"Juliana,"  and  "The  Fates  of  the  Apostles,"  the  last- 
named  including  also  "Andreas,"  had  handled  fondly 
the  good  Word  of  God,  and  had  made  it  the  norm 
and  governor  of  his  thought.  Right  well  did  this 
English  poet  of  the  long-ago  declare,  "God  Himself 
unlocked  the  power  of  poetry  in  my  breast." 

^  The  extracts  from  the  poem  used  in  this  chapter  are  taken 
from  Dean  Stubbs*  chapter  on  Cynewulf  in  The  Christ  of 
English  Poetry.  Prof.  A.  S.  Cook  of  Yale  University  has 
published  a  valuable  edition  of  "The  Christ  of  Cynewulf." 


THE  FATHER  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

"The  rising  sun  shall  find  the  Bible  in  thy  hands.*' 

Old  Monastic  Rule. 

THE  eighth  century  was  a  brilliant  period  in 
English  history.  In  that  century  the  English 
centers  of  culture,  especially  in  the  north, 
reached  the  climax  of  their  usefulness,  and  their  in- 
fluence extended  to  the  continent  of  Europe. 

It  must  be  apparent  to  the  student  of  these  early 
centuries  that  the  crystallizing  of  thought  in  the  form 
of  literature  was  profoundly  affected  by  the  body  of 
literature  that  was  found  ready-to-hand  in  the  Bible. 
Racial  gift  and  temperament  would,  of  course,  have 
inspired  the  men  of  that  day  to  write  in  any  case. 
Nevertheless  there  can  be  no  mistaking  the  stimulus 
offered  to  intellectual  productiveness  by  the  Bible. 
The  raw  material  of  genius  was  present  in  society: 
what  the  Bible  did  was  to  fertilize  the  genius  of  men 
and  cause  it  to  bring  forth  a  characteristic  literature. 

This  was  the  more  remarkable  because  there  was  as 
yet  no  vernacular  translation  of  the  Scripture,  although 
portions  were  early  carried  over  Into  Anglo-Saxoit 
versions.  It  is  difficult  for  us  in  our  age,  when  the 
printed  page  tends  to  stunt  the  memory,  to  realize 
the  power  of  oral  teaching  In  an  age  when  men  were 
hearers  more  than  they  were  readers.  Again  at  thig 
point  we  remark  upon  the  simple  beginnings  of  litera^ 

72 


THE  FATHER  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE        73 

ture,  which  are  found  not  alone  in  the  minds  of 
cloistered  scholars,  but  in  the  hearts  of  the  common 
people,  whose  ears  first  tingle  with  the  sound  of 
strange  and  unwonted  truth.  Caedmon,  who  could 
not  read  Latin,  must  have  depended  for  his  knowledge 
of  the  Bible  upon  oral  teaching. 

We  have  seen  how  the  early  missioners  drew  the 
people  to  the  sound  of  the  Scripture.  Indeed  with  all 
the  accrued  values  of  the  printed  page  in  the  present 
day,  the  influence  of  oral  instruction  in  the  Bible  ought 
not  to  be  underestimated.  The  very  sound  of  the 
Scripture,  that  is  heard  in  the  land  from  Sabbath  to 
Sabbath  in  many  pulpits,  is  an  incalculable  power  for 
education  in  the  speech  and  mental  habits  of  the  peo- 
ple. What  this  influence  must  have  been  in  a  time 
when  ears  were  wide  open,  and  nothing  interfered 
with  the  entrance  of  the  Word,  can  only  be  in  part 
imagined. 

By  the  time  of  the  eighth  century  the  hearing  of  the 
Scripture  was  well  advanced.  But  this  was  not  all. 
We  have  referred  in  a  previous  chapter  to  the  work 
of  the  schools  which  was  momentous  in  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  time.  The  best  proof  of  their  usefulness 
is  found  in  the  men  that  they  produced.  Great  teach- 
ers and  writers  grew  up  in  the  intensive  atmosphere 
of  study  that  surrounded  the  northern  schools.  Meij 
could  not  pore  day  after  day  over  the  pages  of  the 
Holy  Word  without  experiencing  a  strange  intellectual 
stimulus  along  with  the  spiritual  uplift.  With  men  of 
natural  talent  and  ability  the  Bible  exercised  a  spell 
of  mental  excitation.  It  broadened  their  horizons, 
furnished  new  subjects  of  thought,  new  materials  for 
imagination.     And  withal  it  invested  with  new  worth 


74       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

and  dignity  all  the  work,  however  common,  of  men's 
hearts  and  hands.  It  is  no  wonder  that  devout  monks 
in  the  schools  gave  themselves  unremittingly  to  the 
work  of  illuminating  manuscripts,  and  the  preparation 
of  rubrics  and  minuscules.  The  fine  arts  are  seen  to 
be  germinating  here  in  the  work  that  men  did  on  the 
form  and  appearance  of  the  Bible. 

Now  and  then  there  would  arise  men  who  were  not 
content  wtih  adorning  the  outside  of  the  Book.  They 
must  go  much  deeper  and  farther.  They  saw  the  rela- 
tion of  the  Bible  to  human  life  in  larger  ways.  It  be- 
came to  them  a  norm  of  thought  and  plan.  They 
measured  the  universe  by  its  rule:  they  applied  its 
terms  to  things  high  and  low.  They  were  in  fact  early 
schoolmen,  lacking  in  the  profundity  of  later  nominal- 
ists and  realists,  but  cherishing  the  same  scholastic 
conception  of  Holy  Scripture. 

It  is  an  impressive  fact  that  the  Bible  for  many 
generations  has  contributed  much  to  the  making  of 
scholars  and  teachers.  No  surer  evidence  can  be  ad- 
duced of  the  strength  of  the  Book  than  is  seen  in  its 
power  to  create  scholarship.  A  weak  book  could  not 
have  exercised  such  a  spell  of  literary  creativeness. 
Even  in  the  far-away  schools  of  northern  England 
there  arose  an  embryonic  scholarship  that  was  steeped 
in  Scripture.  Gifted  men  brought  their  talents  to 
God's  altar,  they  dipped  their  pens  in  the  well  of  God's 
Book,  and  wrote  in  terms  thereof  the  lessons  they 
had  learned  in  philosophy  and  life. 

The  picture  of  the  early  English  scholar  is  thus  in- 
dissolubly  associated  with  the  Bible.  We  see  him  in 
fact  as  in  a  Biblical  frame,  and  surrounded  by  a 
Biblical  atmosphere.     However  far  English-speaking 


THE  FATHER  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE       75 

scholars  and  writers  may  travel  into  the  world  of  ma- 
terial, and  whatever  independence  of  spiritual  norms 
and  sources  they  may  seem  to  achieve,  let  them  at  least 
never  forget  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  they  were 
digged.  The  first  scholars  of  the  English  race  were 
frankly  beholden  to  the  Bible.  It  furnished  them  with 
spiritual  and  intellectual  stimulus,  and,  in  a  time  when 
literature  was  in  its  early  stages,  it  provided  them 
with  literary  forms  and  models. 

As  we  write  these  words  there  is  one  historic 
figure  that  keeps  rising  before  us.  This  is  the  figure 
of  Baeda,  or  the  Venerable  Bede,  whom  Edmund 
Burke  called  "the  father  of  English  learning."  In 
Bede  is  seen  the  finest  flower  of  the  monastic  insti- 
tutions of  northern  England,  and  the  noblest  product 
of  their  Biblical  discipline.  To  have  produced  such  a 
character  and  such  a  scholar  as  the  Venerable  Bede 
is  in  itself  a  sufficient  vindication  of  the  schools,  and, 
in  particular,  of  the  Biblical  basis  upon  which  they 
were  founded.  One  whom  a  sober  historian  could 
describe  as  "the  father  of  our  national  education," 
was  a  rich  inheritance  for  all  time  of  the  Bible  schools 
of  the  eighth  century. 

Bom  near  Wearmouth  in  the  year  673,  Bede  became 
a  pupil  in  Benedict  Biscop's  monastery  at  Jarrow. 
There  he  spent  his  life  in  quiet  study  of  the  Bible  and 
other  books,  and  in  writing  his  more  than  forty  vol- 
umes of  history.  Biblical  commentary,  biography, 
science  and  poetry.  Probably  the  longest  journey  he 
ever  took  was  from  Jarrow  to  York.  "I  have  passed 
my  whole  life  in  the  same  convent,"  he  writes,  "have 
studied  Holy  Writ  with  all  diligence,  and,  along  with 
my  strict  attendance  on  monastic  rule  and  the  daily 


76       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

singing,  have  ever  deemed  it  a  sweet  occupation  to 
teach,  to  learn,  or  to  write." 

His  greatest  work  was  his  Ecclesiastical  History, 
containing  the  story  of  the  EngUsh  church  from  the 
days  when  Augustine  and  his  monks  landed  at  Ebbs- 
fleet  down  almost  to  the  day  of  his  death.  The  inter- 
esting story  of  Caedmon's  call  to  write  was  here  for- 
tunately preserved  for  us.  It  was  this  monumental 
work  in  Latin,  which  was  later  translated  into  the 
popular  language  by  no  less  a  person  than  Alfred  the 
Great,  that  gave  the  Venerable  Bede  his  proudest  title 
- — "the  father  of  English  history." 

If  Caedmon  was  the  early  Milton  of  the  English 
race,  and  Cynewulf  the  early  Tennyson  or  Browning, 
Bede  was  the  early  Ruskin,  and  his  style,  like  that  of 
Ruskin,  has  about  it  much  of  the  stately  charm  of 
Biblical  prose.  He  was  indeed  the  first  master  of 
English  prose,  albeit  he  wrote  for  the  most  part  in 
Latin. 

"The  quiet  grandeur,"  says  Green  the  historian,  "of 
a  life  consecrated  to  knowledge,  the  tranquil  pleasure 
that  lies  in  learning  and  teaching  and  writing,  dawned 
in  fact  for  Englishmen  in  the  story  of  Baeda."^  It  was 
he  who  gave  to  English  literature  a  true  sense  of  per- 
manency. For  the  first  time  scholarship  took  a  place 
never  to  be  surrendered  in  English  history,  and  in  him 
"English  literature  strikes  its  roots." 

Six  hundred  young  men  gathered  about  him  in  the 
monastery  at  Jarrow  and  his  fame  reached  even  to 
Rome,  whither  he  was  invited  to  come  by  the  Pope 
who  desired  to  consult  with  him.  He  was  in  touch 
with  all  the  learnine  of  his  day,  and  the  books  that 
»  Short  History  of  the  English  People.  Chanter  1,  Section  IV. 


THE  FATHER  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE        77 

Biscop  and  Wilfrid  brought  from  the  continent  and 
stored  in  the  northern  monasteries  were  open  to  him. 
He  quotes  with  freedom  from  Greek  and  Latin 
writers,  and  although  he  was  a  writer  of  prose,  the 
spell  of  Vergil  fell  upon  him,  and  on  occasions  he 
ventured  to  unrein  his  fancy  in  verse.  Like  many  an- 
other poet  he  yielded,  notwithstanding  his  monastic 
habit,  to  the  touch  of  the  seasons  and  wrote  an  eclogue 
on  the  approach  of  spring! 

Bede's  studies  were  encyclopedic  in  character,  em- 
bracing all  that  the  world  then  knew  about  astronomy, 
meteorology,  physics,  music,  philosophy,  grammar, 
rhetoric,  arithmetic  and  medicine.  Nevertheless  his 
studies  left  him,  as  one  has  said,  "in  heart  a  simple 
Englishman."  *'He  loved  his  own  English  tongue: 
he  was  skilled  in  English  song:  his  last  work  was  a 
translation  into  English  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John, 
and  almost  the  last  words  that  broke  from  his  lips 
were  some  English  rimes  upon  death."  (Green). 

The  genius  of  Bede  was  inspired  and  informed  by 
constant  study  of  the  Scripture.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  the  Old  Testament  helped  to  make  him  an 
historian:  and  the  incidents,  biographies  and  human 
pictures  of  the  Bible  must  have  had  much  to  do  in 
developing  what  the  historian  has  described  as  "his 
own  exquisite  faculty  of  story- telling."^ 

In  a  letter  to  Cuthwine,  Bede's  devoted  pupil,  Cuth- 
bert  tells  the  story  of  his  master's  last  labors,  wherein 
we  see  England's  first  great  scholar  bending  above  the 
pages  of  Holy  Writ.  He  was  engaged  upon  an  Eng- 
lish translation  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  when  great 

2  Some  of  Bede's  best  scenes  have  often  been  rendered  iri 
English  verse.    See  Wordsworth's  Ecclesiastical  Sonnets. 


78       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

weakness  seized  him.  He  continued  his  lectures  and 
his  writing  however,  until  it  was  apparent  to  all  that 
the  end  was  near.  Now  and  again  his  voice  broke  out 
in  English  song.  'There  is  still  a  chapter  wanting," 
said  his  scribe  to  him,  "and  it  is  hard  for  thee  to 
write."  "It  is  easily  done,"  he  replied.  "Take  thy  pen 
and  write  quickly." 

Toward  evening  of  the  last  day — it  was  Ascension 
Day — the  scribe  announced,  "There  is  yet  one  sen- 
tence unwritten,  dear  Master."  "Write  quickly,"  said 
the  dying  man.  "It  is  finished  now,"  said  the  scribe. 
"Yes,"  said  Bede,  "it  is  all  finished  now,"  and  with  his 
head  supported  on  the  arms  of  his  scholars,  his  failing 
voice  chanting  the  solemn  "Glory  to  God,"  the  Vener- 
able Bede  passed  quietly  away  on  Wednesday  the 
twenty-seventh  of  May  in  the  year  735. 

His  English  work  has  not  survived  for  us — a  loss 
for  which  the  Danish  invaders  of  Northumbria  were 
doubtless  responsible.  But  nothing  can  extract  from 
English  history  and  literature  the  influence  of  this 
Bible-saturated  scholar. 

Imagination  lingers  fondly  over  the  scene  of  the 
Monk  of  Jarrow's  last  hours.  That  he  expired  while 
transcribing  in  English  words  the  apostle  John's  im- 
mortal story  of  the  world's  Savior  was  a  prophecy  of 
the  inherent  spiritual  power  of  English  literature. 
Wordsworth  writes  in  the  Ecclesiastical  Sonnets: — 

"Sublime   Recluse! 
The  recreant  soul,  that  dares  to  shun  the  debt 
Imposed  on  human  kind,  must  first  forget 
Thy  diligence,  thy  unrelaxing  use 
Of  a  long  life;  and,  in  the  hour  of  death, 
The  last  dear  service  of  thy  passing  breath." 


VIII 

THE  TEACHER  OF  EUROPE 

'7  *  *  *  am  busied  under  the  shelter  of  St.  Martin's 
in  bestowing  upon  many  of  my  pupils  the  honey  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures/' 

From  Alcuin*s  letter  to   Charlemagne. 

IT  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  when  intellectual  dark- 
ness had  fallen  upon  western  Europe  and  even 
Rome  had  become  barbarian,  the  lamp  of  learn- 
ing was  still  kept  alight  in  Britain  and  Ireland.  How 
the  light  was  brought  back  to  the  continent  is  an  in- 
teresting story — a  story  that  is  not  unrelated  to  the 
influence  of  the  Bible  and  the  making  of  literature  in 
England  and  elsewhere. 

Students  distinguish  three  revivals  of  learning  in 
western  Europe,  increasing  steadily  in  strength  from 
first  to  last.  The  first  of  these  took  place  under  Charles 
the  Great  and  Alcuin  of  York.  The  second  restoration 
grew  out  of  the  influence  of  scholasticism  and  re- 
sulted in  the  founding  of  the  universities.  The  third 
movement  of  restoration  called  the  Renaissance  was 
so  profound  and  far-reaching  as  to  obtain  for  itself 
the  distinctive  title — The  Revival  of  Learning.  The 
intellectual  overturning  which  took  place  in  this  period 
was  truly  constructive  of  a  new  world  both  in  educa- 
tion and  religion. 

The  first  of  these  movements  was  in  a  sense  the 


80       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  UTERATUBE 

most  important,  even  as  it  was  the  most  unique.  Grave 
issues  hinged  upon  it,  and  the  future  culture  of 
Europe  lay  in  its  lap.  If  it  had  not  been  for  Alcuin, 
the  English  scholar  whom  Charlemagne  called  to  be 
his  minister  of  education,  and  who  nourished  the  in- 
tellectual life  of  western  Europe,  not  only  in  the 
Palace  School,  but  also  in  monasteries  and  cathedrals 
throughout  the  Prankish  kingdom,  it  is  probable  that 
the  darkness  would  have  deepened  in  western  Europe, 
and  the  age  of  the  universities  would  never  have 
dawned.^ 

To  trace  the  beginnings  of  the  Carolingian  school 
with  its  prolonged  influence  in  European  culture,  we 
must  return  to  the  schools  of  Northumbria  in  Eng- 
land. 

Alcuin  was  born  near  the  old  Roman  town  of  York 
probably  in  the  year  735,  the  very  year  in  which  the 
Venerable  Bede  died.  The  twin  monastery  of  Wear- 
mouth  and  Jarrow  was  founded  by  Benedict  Biscop,- 
whose  greatest  pupil,  as  we  have  seen,  was  Bede. 
There  Bede  had  access  to  the  rich  store  of  books  which 
Benedict  brought  from  Rome  and  Vienna.  Bede  had 
a  friend  Egbert  who  became  Archbishop  of  York  in 
732.  Egbert  founded  there  a  cathedral  school  and 
established  within  it  a  valuable  library.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Aelbert  or  Ethelbert.  In  this  school  at 
York  Alcuin  was  trained,  unconscious  of  the  great 
work  that  lay  before  him  as  the  teacher  of  Europe.^ 

'^Alcuin  and  the  Rise  of  the  Christian  Schools,  pp.  1-3, 
Professor  Andrew  F.  West. 

2  The  words  of  Bishop  Stubbs  already  quoted  on  another 
page  are  worth  quoting  again  at  this  point.  "It  may  be  said/* 
he  writes,  "that  the  civilization  and  learning  of  the  eighth 


THE  TEACHER  OF  EUROPE  81 

The  education  he  received  included  the  Hberal  arts, 
but  more  than  all  it  provided  for  constant  study  of  the 
Scripture.  The  memorizing  of  Latm  Psalms  was  one 
of  his  earliest  disciplines.  His  letters  reveal  his  cur- 
rent familiarity  v^rith  the  Bible.^ 

In  his  poem  "On  the  Saints  of  the  Church  at  York," 
where — 

"the  Euboric  scholars  felt  the  rule 
Of  Master  Aelbert,  teaching  in  the  school," 

he  proceeds  to  give  a  description  of  the  studies  pur- 
sued. 

"To  some  he  made  the  grammar  understood 
And  poured  on  others  rhetoric's  copious  flood." 

And  so  on  through  the  list  of  the  liberal  studies  of  the 
day. 

"Then,  last  and  best,  he  opened  up  to  view 
The  depths  of  Holy  Scripture,  Old  and  New. 
Was  any  youth  in  studies  well  approved. 
Then  him  the  Master  cherished,  taught,  and  loved; 
And  thus  the  double  knowledge  he  conferred 
Of  liberal  studies  and  the  Holy  Word." 

In  due  time  Alculn  was  called  to  be  the  master  of 
the  school,  and  later  he  took  charge  of  the  cathedral 
library  at  York  which  was  then  widely  famed  for  its 
riches.  In  one  of  his  journeys  to  Italy  he  met  Charles 
the  Great,  and  thus  began  an  acquaintance  which  had 

century  rested  on  the  monastery  which  he  (Biscop)  founded, 
which  produced  Bede,  and  through  him,  the  school  of  York, 
Alcuin,  and  the  Carolingian  school,  on  which  the  culture  of 
the  Middle  Ages  was  based."  See  Dictionary  of  Christian 
Biography,  Vol.  I,  p.  309. 

8  See  Warner's  Library  of  the  World's  Best  Literature, 
article  on  Alcuin. 


82       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

much  to  do  with  the  future  of  education  in  Europe. 
At  a  second  meeting  with  Charles  Alcuin  was  invited 
to  leave  England  and  come  to  Frankland  as  the  prime 
minister  of  education  in  the  Prankish  kingdom. 

Surely  Providence  must  have  been  directing  the 
turn  of  events  that  took  this  Bible-trained  scholar 
from  England  to  rule  over  Charlemagne's  Palace 
School  at  Aachen.  The  year  was  782.  It  would  be 
too  much  to  say  that  the  darkness  of  western  Europe 
fled  at  the  approach  of  Alcuin.  What  the  historians 
do  not  hesitate  to  say  is  that  learning  returned  to 
Europe  when  Alcuin  left  the  monastic  school  at  York 
and  undertook  the  work  of  education  on  the  continent. 

Learning  was  in  a  sorry  state  in  Frankland  upon 
Alcuin's  arrival.  The  monastic  and  cathedral  schools 
had  been  abandoned,  and  in  many  instances  the  mon- 
asteries had  been  given  to  royal  favorites.  When  he 
died  in  804  he  left  behind  him,  not  only  a  royal  circle 
that  had  been  refined  by  contact  with  the  liberal  arts 
and  the  Holy  Scripture,  but  also  a  company  of  trained 
scholars,  such  as  Theodulf,  Bishop  of  Orleans,  the 
adviser  of  Lewis  who  succeeded  Charles  the  Great; 
Arno,  Archbishop  of  Salzburg;  Fridugis,  his  favorite 
pupil,  who  succeeded  him  as  head  of  the  monastery 
and  school  at  Tours ;  and  the  greatest  of  his  pupils,  the 
young  Rabanus  Maurus,  who  even  more  than  his  mas- 
ter deserves  the  title  of  teacher  of  Europe.  Through 
those  whom  he  trained  Alcuin's  influence  lived  after 
him.  It  was  such  as  these,  receiving  their  inspiration 
from  the  scholar  of  York,  who  kept  learning  alive  in 
monasteries  and  cathedrals  in  the  difficult  days  that 
followed,  until  the  new  age  of  the  universities  dawned 
in  Europe. 


THE  TEACHER  OF  EUROPE  83 

When  Charles  the  Great  in  the  year  800  took  his 
journey  to  Rome,  a  journey  which  ended  for  him  so 
gloriously,  he  invited  his  minister  of  education  to  ac- 
company him.  But  Alcuin,  beginning  to  feel  the  bur- 
den of  age  and  of  his  assiduous  toil  in  teaching  and 
writing,  could  not  undertake  the  journey.  Although 
Alcuin  was  not  present  when  on  Christmas  Day  in  St. 
Peter's  in  Rome  the  Pope  suddenly  set  a  crown  upon 
the  head  of  Charlemagne  and  saluted  him  as  "Carolus 
Augustus,  Emperor  of  the  Romans,"  it  is  certain  that 
the  devout  teacher  must  have  rejoiced  in  the  privilege 
he  had  exercised  of  pouring  "the  honey  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures"  into  the  very  fountain-head  of  European 
culture. 

Professor  West  has  endeavored  in  his  interesting 
and  valuable  study  of  Alcuin  to  reproduce  the  picture 
of  the  Palace  School  at  Aachen.*  Alcuin  the  master 
sits  in  the  midst  of  his  royal  pupils.  Charles  himself, 
who  received  the  Biblical  name  of  David,  is  the  fore- 
most of  all  the  scholars.  His  queen  Liutgard  is  there, 
"resplendent  in  mind  and  pious  in  heart."  There  are 
also  present  Gisela,  one  of  the  four  sisters  of  Charles, 
and  his  three  sons,  Charles,  Pepin  and  Lewis,  the 
last-named  destined  to  succeed  his  father  as  "Lewis 
the  Pious."  Two  daughters  of  the  king  were  mem- 
bers of  the  school,  "the  fair-haired  princess  Rotrud 
and  her  gentler  sister  Gisela,"  besides  his  son-in-law, 
Angilbert,  and  his  cousins,  Adelhard  and  Wala,  with 
their  sister,  Gundrada.  Others  there  were  not  of  the 
royal  family,  such  as  Einhard,  afterward  the  biog- 
rapher of  Charles,  Riculf,  later  Archbishop  of  May- 
ence,  Alcuin's  friend  Arno,  who  became  Archbishop 

*  Alcuin  and  the  Rise  of  the  Christian  Schools,  pp.  42-48. 


84       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

of  Salzburg,  and  Theodulf,  afterward  Archbishop  of 
Orleans.  In  addition  to  these  there  were  the  three 
scholars  who  had  followed  him  from  York — Witzo, 
Fridugis  and  Sigulf.  Altogether  it  was  an  attractive 
and  influential  group,  scarcely  more  than  a  university 
in  embryo,  yet  a  sure  foretoken  of  the  greater  intel- 
lectual life  of  Europe. 

In  all  his  teaching  Alcuin  sought  to  ennoble  knowl- 
edge with  "the  mastership  of  Christ  the  Lord."  That, 
he  said,  "would  surpass  all  the  wisdom  of  the  studies 
of  the  Academy;"  it  would  be  "enriched  beyond  this 
with  the  sevenfold  plenitude  of  the  Holy  Spirit." 

The  influence  of  such  training,  saturated  as  it  was 
with  Scriptural  thought  and  motive,  is  best  seen  in 
the  historic  capitulary  which  Charles  issued  in  787, 
which  has  been  called  "the  first  general  charter  of  edu- 
cation for  the  Middle  Ages."  It  was  a  charge  to  the 
abbots  and  others  to  give  assiduous  attention  to  the 
study  of  letters.  The  King  reproves  their  illiteracy 
and  bids  them  to  honor  God  by  correct  speech,  en- 
forcing his  exhortation  by  the  Scripture,  "By  thine 
own  words  shalt  thou  be  justified  or  condemned." 
"We  exhort  you  therefore  not  only  not  to  neglect  the 
study  of  letters,  but  to  apply  yourselves  thereto  with 
perseverance  and  with  that  humility  which  is  well 
pleasing  to  God ;  so  that  you  may  be  able  to  penetrate 
with  greater  ease  and  certainty  the  mysteries  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures." 

It  is  at  least  instructive  to  observe  how  the  motives 
of  the  new  learning  fostered  by  the  great  Charlemagne 
were  inextricably  bound  up  with  the  study  of  the 
Bible.  The  scholar  of  York — Bible-lover  that  he  was 
— did  his  work  well  in  instilling  in  the  min4  of  such  ^ 


THE  TEACHER  OF  EUROPE  85 

maker  of  history  as  Charles  the  Great  the  love  of  the 
Holy  Book. 

The  latter  years  of  Alcuin's  life  until  his  death  in 
804  were  spent  at  Tours,  where  he  was  abbot  of  the 
monastery,  which  by  his  efforts  became  a  new  center 
of  light  and  learning.  It  was  here  that  he  wrote  his 
famous  letter  to  Charles  in  which  he  contrasted  "the 
honey  of  the  Holy  Scriptures"  with  "the  old  wine  of 
the  ancient  disciplines"  and  "the  apples  of  grammatical 
subtlety."  The  letter  is  full  of  references  to  the  Bible 
which  he  uses  aptly  to  enforce  his  points. 

In  the  Scriptorium  at  Tours  Alcuin  kept  the  monks 
busy  in  copying  manuscripts  and  ornamenting  after 
the  manner  of  the  time.  One  served  as  reader  while 
others  copied  what  they  heard.  It  was  the  only  pub- 
lishing house  that  was  possible  in  that  day :  and  Alcuin 
and  his  monks  felt  that  they  were  rendering  an  im- 
portant service  by  preserving  valuable  manuscripts 
and  thus  saving  learning  from  perishing  in  Europe. 
In  Alcuin's  view  it  was  a  deeply  sacred  office  to 
transcribe  the  Scripture  and  the  writings  of  holy  men. 
No  trifler's  hand  should  deal  with  such  a  task.  "Writ- 
ing books  is  better  than  planting  vines,"  so  ran  one  of 
his  aphorisms;  "for  he  who  plants  a  vine  serves  his 
belly,  but  he  who  writes  a  book  serves  his  soul." 

It  was  the  Bible  more  than  all  else  that  informed  the 
studies,  the  writing,  and  all  the  work  of  Alcuin.  Al- 
though he  had  classic  tastes — at  one  time  he  was 
himself  something  of  a  Vergilian — ^he  came  later  to 
feel  that  the  poetry  of  the  Bible  was  all-sufficient. 
"Oh!  that  the  four  Gospels  and  not  the  twelve 
^neids  might  fill  your  thoughts,"  he  wrote  to  an 
archbishop.     When  he  would  send  a  royal  present  to 


86      THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

his  patron  Charlemagne  he  could  think  of  nothing  so 
suitable  as  a  beautifully  written  copy  of  the  four  Gos- 
pels. Although  he  wrote  on  many  topics  it  was  the 
Bible  that  furnished  the  rule  of  his  hfe  and  the  model 
of  his  writing.  The  seven  arts  in  his  view  were  only 
"necessary  ascents  to  the  higher  wisdom  of  the 
Scriptures." 

Much  of  his  work  was  done  outside  of  England, 
and  with  the  Latin  language  as  an  instrument.  Never- 
theless the  fountain-head  was  England,  and  we  cannot 
but  feel  that  his  work  aided  not  a  little  in  giving  to 
English  literature  its  Biblical  cast  and  character. 


IX 

KING  ALFRED  AND  THE  BIBLE 

"Aelfred  mec  heht  gewyrcan,"  {Alfred  ordered  me 
made).  Inscription  on  an  antique  jewel  in  the  Ash- 
molean  Museum  at  Oxford.  ^ 

IN  previous  chapters  we  have  seen  how  powerful 
the  Bible  was,  even  in  an  age  when  literature  as 
we  conceive  of  the  term  was  a  far-away  reality, 
in  informing  the  thought  of  the  people,  and  preparing 
them,  by  the  Biblical  atmosphere  that  was  being  cre- 
ated, for  the  growth  of  literature.  We  have  seen  how 
the  Bible  influenced  such  men  as  Caedmon  and  Cyne- 
wulf  in  what  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  the  beginnings 
of  English  literature.  And  we  have  also  seen  what  a 
powerful  factor  the  Bible  was  in  the  lives  of  such 
scholars  as  Bede  and  Alcuin  who,  though  their  work 
was  done  mostly  in  Latin,  gave  incalculable  aid  in  pre- 
paring for  the  birth  of  a  real  national  literature. 

It  is  now  our  task  to  consider  the  actual  beginnings 
of  such  a  national  literature,  and  to  point  out  how,  in 
the  Providence  of  God,  the  man  who  had  most  to  dp 
with  laying  its  foundations  was  a  passionate  lover  of 
the  Word  of  God.  For  it  is  to  be  remembered  that, 
notwithstanding  occasional  outbursts  of  native  genius, 
notwithstanding  the  abundant  labors  of  the  monas- 
teries in  transcribing  and  preserving  manuscripts,  and 
notwithstanding  some  beginnings  at  vernacular  trans- 

87 


88       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

lations,  there  was  as  yet  nothing  approaching  a  na- 
tional literature.^  With  such  exceptions  as  have  been 
mentioned  the  thaldrom  of  the  Latin  language  was 
still  secure.  In  Italy  Latin  was  spoken  down  to  the 
thirteenth  century.  St.  Anthony  of  Padua  (d.  1231) 
preached  in  Latin  and  the  people  understood  him.^ 
In  England  the  monasteries  down  to  the  time  of  Al- 
fred had  apparently  not  begun  to  think  of  giving  up 
their  beloved  Latin.  We  have  seen  that  the  Venerable 
Bede  died  over  the  last  sentences  of  the  Gospel  of 
John  which  he  translated  into  English.  But  there  was 
as  yet  no  general  movement  toward  creating  a  body  of 
English  writing. 

It  was  Alfred  the  Great  who  opened  the  way  for 
the  creation  of  a  true  literature  of  the  English  people. 
Alfred  came  to  the  West  Saxon  throne  in  the  year 
871,  and  reigned  until  his  death  in  901.  His  glory  can 
never  fade  from  English  history.  Historians  vie  with 
one  another  in  depicting  the  strength  of  his  character, 
and  the  value  of  his  accomplishments.  There  is  scarce 
a  discordant  note.  Asser,  whom  Alfred  called  from 
Wales  to  live  at  the  court,  gives  a  remarkable  tribute 
to  his  royal  patron.     Besides  giving  assiduous  atten- 

1  "At  this  time,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  there  can  only  have 
been  one,  or  at  most  two  books  in  the  English  language — the 
long  poem  by  Caedmon  about  the  creation  of  the  world,  etc., 
and  the  poem  of  Beowulf  about  warriors  and  fiery  dragons. 
There  were  many  English  ballads  and  songs,  but  whether 
these  were  written  down  I  do  not  know.  There  was  no  book 
of  history,  not  even  English  history:  no  book  of  geography, 
no  religious  books,  no  philosophy.  Bede,  who  had  written 
so  many  books,  had  written  them  all  in  Latin."  Lectures  on 
the  History  of  England,  by  M.  J.  Guest,  Lect.  9. 

*  The  Renaissance,  Philip  Schaff,  p.  10. 


KING  ALFRED  AND  THE  BIBLE  89 

tion  to  the  government,  as  well  as  to  the  pursuits  and 
industries  of  the  people,  he  continued  "to  recite  the 
Saxon  books,  and  especially  to  learn  by  heart  the 
Saxon  poems,  and  to  make  others  learn  them :  he  never 
desisted  from  studying  most  diligently  to  the  best 
of  his  ability:  he  attended  the  mass  and  other  daily 
services  of  religion:  he  was  frequent  in  psalm-singing 
and  prayer:  he  bestowed  alms  and  largesses  on  both 
natives  and  foreigners  of  all  countries :  he  was  affable 
and  pleasant  to  all,  and  curiously  eager  to  investigate 
things  unknown."  This  picture  drawn  by  a  contempo- 
rary hand  presents  a  royal  figure  indeed. 

In  the  century  after  his  death  Florence  of  Worces- 
ter describes  him  as  "that  famous,  warlike,  victorious 
king:  the  zealous  protector  of  widows,  scholars,  or- 
phans and  the  poor ;  skilled  in  the  Saxon  poets ;  affable 
and  liberal  to  all;  endowed  with  prudence,  fortitude, 
justice  and  temperance;  most  patient  under  the  in- 
firmity which  he  daily  suffered ;  a  most  stern  inquisitor 
in  executing  justice;  vigilant  and  devoted  in  the  serv- 
ice of  God." 

But  it  was  left  to  modern  historians  to  paint  the 
most  remarkable  of  all  pictures  of  Alfred.  Green 
calls  him,  "the  noblest  of  English  rulers,"  and  declares 
that  his  moral  grandeur  Hfts  him  to  the  level  of  the 
world's  greatest  men.  He  "found  time  amidst  the 
cares  of  state  for  the  daily  duties  of  religion,  for  con- 
verse with  strangers,  for  study  and  translation,  for 
learning  poems  by  heart,  for  planning  buildings  and 
instructing  craftsmen  in  gold-work,  for  teaching  even 
falconers  and  dog-keepers  their  business."^ 

8  A  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  Chapter  I,  Section 
V. 


90       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Freeman  draws  even  a  more  impressive  portrait  of 
the  king.  He  is  the  most  perfect  character  in  history, 
"to  whose  character  romance  has  done  no  more  than 
justice,  and  who  appears  in  exactly  the  same  Ught  in 
history  and  in  fable."  The  poet  Wordsworth  describes 
him  as  ''Lord  of  the  harp  and  liberating  spear." 

Circumstances  made  him  a  warrior,  but  nature 
made  him  a  lover  of  literature.  Tradition  relates  that 
when  he  was  a  mere  lad,  his  mother  showed  him  and 
his  brother  a  book  of  poetry,  saying  to  them,  "Which- 
ever of  you  shall  soonest  learn  this  volume  shall  have 
it  for  his  own."  Alfred  mastered  the  book,  aiid  thus 
his  love  of  literature  began.  It  seemed  for  a  time  that 
his  task  was  to  be  wholly  a  military  one,  for  the  ravag- 
ing Northmen  were  pressing  closer  and  closer  to  the 
heart  of  England.  Northumberland  was  the  first  to 
suffer;  and  the  precious  institutions  that  had  been 
built  up  in  the  north  fell  under  the  ruthless  hand  of  the 
invader.  Next  the  Danes  entered  Mercia  and  East 
Anglia,  and  at  length  they  reached  Wessex  where 
Ethelred  and  his  brother  Alfred  disputed  their  pro- 
gress. The  task  of  resistance  was  soon  left  to  Alfred 
alone  upon  the  death  of  his  brother,  and  although  the 
English  suffered  many  things  and  the  loss  of  much 
territory,  "the  strong  heart  of  the  most  renowned  of 
Englishmen,  the  saint,  the  scholar,  the  hero,  and  the 
lawgiver,  carried  his  people  safely  through  this  most 
terrible  of  dangers."* 

A  heart  less  stout  than  Alfred's  would  have  quailed 
before  the  conditions  that  prevailed  after  the  Danish 
invasions.    Towns  were  laid  waste  and  pillaged.    Lon- 

*  History  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  K  A.  Freeman,  Giap- 
ter  n. 


KING  ALFRED  AND  THE  BIBLE  91 

don  itself  had  suffered  severely.  The  monasteries  and 
schools  had  been  destroyed,  and  ignorance  and  in- 
security were  widespread.  The  monastery  of  Jar  row, 
where  the  Venerable  Bede  wrote  his  Ecclesiastical 
History,  was  ravished.  It  is  supposed  that  his  English 
translation  of  the  Gospel  of  John  was  lost  in  the 
Danish  invasion.  The  monastery  of  Whitby,  which 
saw  the  earliest  beginnings  of  English  song  in  Caed- 
mon*s  vision,  was  only  temporarily  saved  by  the  cour- 
age of  the  monks.'  A  few  years  of  lawlessness  during 
the  foreign  invasions  had  sufficed  to  shatter  the 
foundations  of  society,  and  to  destroy  such  social  and 
religious  institutions  as  had  grown  up  under  the  favor- 
ing influence  of  Christianity.  Learning  had  suffered  a 
deathblow,  and  there  were  few  persons  left  who  had 
either  vision  or  courage  to  press  forward  to  better 
things.  The  intellectual  brilliancy  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury in  England  was  in  the  ninth  century  reduced  to 
the  dimness  of  a  rushlight,  with  imminent  danger  in- 
deed of  being  extinguished  altogether. 

Happily  King  Alfred  was  able  to  divine  with  a  true 
instinct  the  needs  of  society  in  his  day.  Having  saved 
England  from  the  power  of  the  invader  he  did  not 
stop  with  this.  He  had  the  soul  of  a  poet  as  well  as 
the  mind  and  heart  of  a  king :  and  he  saw  in  imagina- 
tion the  English  people  turning  back  again  to  religion 
and  education. 

If  he  could  but  inspire  them  with  love  for  their  own 
— their  own  language  and  song,  their  own  religious 
history  and  mission — he  conceived  that  England  might 
become  a  new  nation.    It  is  this  vision  of  his  for  his 

5/4  History  of  English  Literature,  William  V.  Moody  and 
Robert  M.  Lovett,  p.  i8. 


92       THE  BIBLE  EST  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

people  that  entitles  him  to  be  called  Alfred  the  Great, 
far  more  even  than  his  military  exploits.  He  was 
himself  a  passionate  lover  of  the  old  songs  of  his  race. 
Many  of  them  he  had  learned  by  heart.  And  he 
longed  for  the  day  v^hen  once  more  the  sound  of  Eng- 
lish song  and  ballad  should  be  heard  in  the  land.  In 
this  instinct  of  his  for  popular  education  Alfred  was 
the  forerunner  of  a  long  line  of  eminent  education- 
ists, moralists,  and  reformers,  who  have  clearly  under- 
stood that  the  healing  of  nations  must  begin  invariably 
at  the  fountain-head  of  popular  feeling  and  emotion. 
With  King  Alfred  the  motive  was  deeply  religious. 
He  desired  to  do  his  people  good  spiritually,  and  in 
all  his  plans  for  popular  education  he  kept  his  own 
mind  free  from  materialistic  lapses.  It  was  the  music 
of  the  Psalms  that  comforted  his  own  heart,  and  it 
was  nothing  less  than  this  consolation  that  constituted 
his  ambition  for  the  people. 

The  familiar  story  of  Alfred's  Note-Book  indicates 
what  a  genius  he  had  for  grasping  and  adapting  the 
material  that  was  at  hand.  "He  carried  in  his  bosom," 
says  Green,  "a  little  hand-book  in  which  he  jotted 
down  things  as  they  struck  him,  now  a  bit  of  family 
genealogy,  now  a  prayer,  now  a  story  such  as  that  of 
Bishop  Ealdhelm  singing  sacred  songs  on  the  bridge."® 
It  is  Marcus  Aurelius  come  back  again  who  writes 
thus  reflectively  in  his  hand-book:  "Desirest  thou 
power?  But  thou  shalt  never  obtain  it  without  sor- 
rows— sorrows  from  strange  folk,  and  yet  keener  sor- 
rows from  thine  own  kindred." 

That  Alfred  studied  the  situation  carefully  is  re- 

^A  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  Chapter  I,  Sec- 
tion V. 


KING  ALFRED  AND  THE  BIBLE  93 

vealed  in  the  Preface  to  his  English  version  of 
Gregory's  Pastoral  Care.  He  recalls  with  interest  the 
former  times  when  peace  and  prosperity  abounded  in 
England  with  learning  and  religion.  Then  foreigners 
came  to  England  in  search  of  wisdom.  "The  churches 
throughout  the  whole  of  England  stood  filled  with 
treasures  and  books."  But  now  it  would  be  necessary 
to  go  to  the  Continent  to  obtain  learning.  England's 
light  had  almost  gone  out.  "There  were  very  few  on 
this  side  of  the  Humber  who  could  understand  their 
rituals  in  English,  or  translate  a  letter  from  Latin  into 
English;  and  I  believe  there  were  not  many  beyond 
the  Humber.  There  were  so  few  that  I  cannot  re- 
member a  single  one  south  of  the  Thames  when  I 
came  to  the  throne."  To  Alfred  it  seemed  a  strange 
thing  that  "the  good  and  wise  men,  who  were  formerly 
all  over  England,  and  had  perfectly  learned  all  the 
books,  did  not  wish  to  translate  them  into  their  own 
language."^  It  was,  he  thought,  a  fatal  mistake  to 
have  kept  the  treasures  of  religion  and  literature 
locked  up  in  a  language  other  than  that  of  the  people. 
"They  did  not  think  that  men  would  ever  be  so  care- 
less, and  that  learning  would  so  decay :  therefore  they 
abstained  from  translating,  and  they  trusted  that  the 
wisdom  in  this  land  might  increase  with  our  knowl- 
edge of  languages."  But  alas  !  They  had  not  reckoned 
with  the  Danish  marauders.  It  is  one  of  the  sad  re- 
flections of  history,  to  consider  what  untold  literary 
values  may  have  disappeared  in  England  with  the 
coming  of  the  ravishing  Northmen.  If  only  men  had 
realized  the  value  of  vernacular  translations — or  even 

^  See  Warner's   Library  of  the    World's  Best  Literature, 
Alfred  the  Great.  Vol.  I,  pp.  393,  394. 


94       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

of  oral  transcripts — their  memory  might  have  served 
a  later  generation. 

The  king  resolved  to  do  what  he  could  to  furnish 
a  remedy.  He  would  open  up  to  the  people  in  their 
own  language  the  treasures  which  had  heretofore  been 
confined  to  the  clergy.  He  would  lay  the  foundations 
of  a  national  literature  in  England.  It  is  impossible 
that  Alfred  should  have  measured  the  full  meaning  of 
his  decision ;  he  builded  better  than  he  knew.  In  all 
history  there  have  been  few  resolutions  of  royalty  that 
have  meant  so  much  for  human  welfare  as  did  Al- 
fred's determination  to  give  to  the  English  people 
books  written  in  their  own  language. 

The  lapse  of  centuries  does  not  dim  the  astonish- 
ment with  which  men  still  regard  the  rapid  reconstruc- 
tive work  of  this  good  royal  hand.  He  founded 
monasteries  and  schools,  and  restored  the  waste  places. 
He  opened  a  school  in  his  own  court  for  his  own 
children  and  the  children  of  his  nobles.  He  gave  at- 
tention to  law,  justice,  religion,  education  and  in- 
dustry. He  looked  after  the  training  of  the  clergy, 
for  he  realized  that  the  people  could  not  be  expected  to 
rise  above  the  level  of  their  teachers.  He  set  the  peo- 
ple to  reciting  the  Saxon  books,  and  to  learning  the 
Saxon  poems.  In  all  this  he  himself  set  the  example. 
His  ambition  was  that  every  free-born  youth  who 
could  do  so  should  "abide  at  his  book  till  he  can  well 
understand  English  writing." 

Alfred  surrounded  himself  too  with  such  helpers  as 
were  available,  summoning  them  from  other  parts.  It 
is  said  that  France  and  Germany  contributed  to  his 
staff  of  workers.  The  famous  Bishop  Asser,  whose 
fervent  eulogy  of  his  royal  patron  must  be  received 


KING  ALFRED  AND  THE  BIBLE  95 

with  caution,  came  from  Wales.  Over  the  abbey 
which  Alfred  founded  at  Winchester  a  scholar  named 
Grimbold  presided.  There  were  such  as  "Plegmund, 
my  archbishop,  and  Asser,  my  bishop,  and  Grimbold, 
my  mass-priest,  and  John,  my  mass-priest."* 

In  all  his  work  the  Bible  occupied  a  large  place.  At 
the  head  of  his  Laws  he  placed  a  copy  of  the  Ten 
Commandments,  to  which  he  added  other  regulations 
of  the  Mosaic  Code.  And  this,  be  it  remembered,  was 
done  not  in  Latin,  but  in  the  language  of  the  common 
people.  Like  other  devout  souls  before  him,  he 
recognized  the  value  of  the  Psalter  as  an  aid  in  the 
promotion  of  religious  feeling.  Therefore  it  is  said 
that  he  set  about  a  translation  of  the  Psalms,  a  work 
that  was  never  completed.®  It  is  believed  too  that  it 
was  in  Alfred's  time,  or  soon  after,  that  the  earliest 
Anglo-Saxon  Gospels  were  produced.  It  was  prob- 
ably during  his  reign  that  the  earliest  English  poems, 
those  of  Caedmon  and  Cynewulf,  were  brought  from 
Northumbria  and  put  in  the  West-Saxon  form  in 
which  we  have  them.^°  Thus,  says  a  historian,  "when 
they  had  a  time  of  'stillness'  the  king  and  his  learned 
friends  set  to  work  and  translated  books  into  English ; 
and  Alfred,  who  was  as  modest  and  candid  as  he  was 
wise,  put  into  the  preface  of  one  of  his  translations 
that  he  hoped  if  any  one  knew  Latin  better  than  he 

8  King  Alfred's  Preface  to  the  Version  of  Pope  Gregory's 
Pastoral  Care. 

«  "There  is  no  known  copy  of  this  work  in  existence,  though 
there  is  a  manuscript  in  the  British  Museum  which  carries 
the  name  'King  Alfred's  Psalter.' "  The  Ancestry  of  Our 
English  Bible,  Prof.  Ira  M.  Price,  p.  212. 

10  A  History  of  English  Literature j  Moody  and  Lovett,  p.  18. 


96       THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

did,  that  he  would  not  blame  him,  for  he  could  but  do 
according  to  his  ability."^^ 

It  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize  what  a  barrier  of 
language  Alfred  had  to  meet.  He  met  the  difficulty 
boldly.  Unconsciously  he  created  a  new  literature. 
His  four  major  translations,  two  of  which  are  Biblical 
in  their  motive  and  flavor,  are  an  everlasting  monu- 
ment to  his  devotion  to  his  people,  and  his  ambition  to 
furnish  them  with  a  literature  of  their  own.  These 
are  Pope  Gregory's  Pastoral  Care,  Boethius*  Conso- 
lations of  Philosophy,  two  manuscripts  of  which  still 
exist.  The  History  of  the  World,  by  Orosius  the  Span- 
ish priest,  which  is  preserved  in  the  Cotton  manuscripts 
in  the  British  Museum,  and,  most  important  of  all, 
Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  English  Nation. 
There  were  other  minor  translations  in  prose  and 
verse,  such  as  versions  of  the  Latin  fables;  and  there 
was  also  his  Note-Book,  which  reveals  as  nothing  else 
could  do  his  habit  of  thought.  It  was  under  his  hand, 
too,  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  which  had  as  its 
model  the  Hebrew  Chronicles,  was  elaborated  and 
made  into  a  national  history.  "It  is  when  it  reaches 
the  reign  of  Alfred  that  the  Chronicle  suddenly  widens 
into  the  vigorous  narrative,  full  of  life  and  originality, 
that  marks  the  gift  of  a  new  power  to  the  English 
tongue."  (Green.)  We  find  in  this  early  English 
Chronicle  the  same  "freshness  of  the  elder  world"  that 
we  are  always  aware  of  in  the  stories  and  even  the 
records  of  the  Old  Testament.^^ 

Thus   Alfred  broke   down  the   Latin  barrier   and 

1*  Lectures  on  the  History  of  England,  M.  J.  Guest,  Lect.  9. 
12  See  The  Bible  as  English  Literature,  Prof.  J.  H.  Gardiner, 
p.  37. 


KING  ALFRED  AND  THE  BIBLE  97 

brought  literature  to  the  people  in  their  own  tongue. 
He  gave  a  definite  Biblical  stamp  to  the  thought  and 
literature  of  the  English  people  which  passed  on  into 
later  years.  Says  Dr.  F.  A.  March,  an  acknowledged 
authority  on  the  life  and  literature  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  "Well  he  loved  God's  men  and  God's  Word. 
He  loved  men  of  learning  and  brought  them  about  him 
from  far  countries.  He  loved  his  people,  their  land, 
and  speech,  and  old  ballads,  and  Bible  songs,  and  he 
was  the  preserver  of  the  literature  and  language,  as 
well  as  the  liberties  and  laws,  of  the  Anglo-Saxons."^* 

The  king  might  write  down  his  laws  for  the  people, 
but  familiar  as  he  was  with  the  Bible,  he  could  not 
keep  from  presenting  the  background  of  human  in- 
stitutions in  the  Mosaic  laws,  with  their  fuller  inter- 
pretation in  Christ  and  the  apostles.  He  might 
translate  the  Consolations  of  the  Roman  Senator 
Boethius,  "the  most  remarkable  literary  effort  of  the 
declining  days  of  the  Roman  Empire,"  but  he  must 
needs  recast  it  and  introduce  many  Christian  pre- 
cepts and  allusions  which  are  not  found  in  the  original. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  actual  beginnings  of  a  national 
literature  in  England  were  interfused  with  the  spirit 
and  form  of  the  Word  of  God.  Alfred  poured  the  in- 
gredient of  Scripture  into  the  mold  in  the  very 
making  of  English  literature.  Not  only  did  he  create 
English  literature ;  he  gave  it  a  certain  Biblical  set  and 
type.  Not  only  did  he  render  a  matchless  service  to 
the  English  people  by  placing  "by  the  side  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  poetry — consisting  of  two  great  poems,  Caed- 
mon's  great  song  of  the  'Creation,'  and  Cynewulf's 
'Nativity  and  Life  of  Christ,*  and  the  unwritten  hdl- 

^^Anglo-Saxon  Reader,  Notes,  p.  78. 


98      THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

lads  passed  from  lip  to  lip — four  immense  translations 
from  Latin  into  Anglo-Saxon  prose,  which  raised 
English  from  a  mere  spoken  dialect  to  a  true  lan- 
guage ;"^*  but  he  grounded  English  thought  and  litera- 
ture in  the  Bible.  When  he  commanded  "that  no  man 
take  the  clasp  from  the  book  or  the  book  from  the 
minster,"^^  he  united  in  sentiment  at  least  the  destiny 
of  English  literature  with  the  Holy  Bible. 

It  was  a  service  scarcely  ever  paralleled  in  the  his- 
tory of  nations,  and  one  that  sufficiently  vindicates  the 
title  that  he  has  always  worn — Alfred  the  Great. 

1*  Warner's  Library  of  the  World's  Best  Literature,  Vol.  I, 

p.  392. 

15  From  Alfred's  Preface  to  the  Version  of  Pope  Gregory's 
Pastoral  Care. 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL 

*'Some  men  say  yet  that  King  Arthur  is  not  dead, 
hut  had  by  the  will  of  our  Lord  Jesus  into  another 
place/' — Sir  Thomas  Malory. 

LOOKING  back  from  the  death  of  Alfred  in  the 
year  901  through  three  centuries  to  the  land- 
ing of  Augustine  and  his  monks,  who  brought 
the  precious  gift  of  the  Holy  Scripture  to  England, 
one  is  compelled  to  reflect  upon  the  tardy  and  meager 
beginnings  of  literature.  At  best  it  is  but  a  tiny  rivu- 
let that  might  at  any  time  be  almost  lost  to  view. 

Yet  when  the  difficulties  that  beset  the  growth  of  a 
true  vernacular  literature  are  remembered,  a  feeling 
of  astonishmnt  at  the  progress  made  soon  gains 
ground.  In  all  these  early  centuries  there  was  nothing 
that  can  even  faintly  be  described  as  a  reading  public. 
Even  if  there  had  been,  the  medium  of  communication 
would  have  proved  inadequate  to  reach  the  public; 
However  busy  the  pens  of  copyists  might  be,  they 
could  not  in  the  nature  of  the  case  furnish  a  com- 
munity with  reading  matter.  Moreover  the  Latin  lan- 
guagre,  althou8:h  it  was  a  wonderful  preserver  and  pur- 
veyor of  thousfht,  was  nevertheless  a  barrier  in  the 
wav  of  popular  education.  It  kept  learning  and  litera- 
ture for  the  most  part  in  the  hands  of  the  learned 
classes. 

90 


100     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

To  offset  this,  however,  there  was  the  work  of 
preachers  and  minstrels  who  approached  the  people  in 
their  own  language,  and  did  much  to  kindle  in  the 
popular  mind  the  love  of  literature.  We  have  seen 
also  how,  beginning  with  the  cowherd  Caedmon,  and 
continuing  down  to  King  Alfred,  there  were  all  along 
those  who  broke  the  barrier  of  the  Latin  tongue  and 
delivered  their  messages  in  words  that  were  level  to 
the  understanding  of  the  people. 

In  all  this  period  it  was  the  church  with  its  precious 
Book  in  hand  that  promoted  the  growth  of  literature. 
It  was  in  the  church  schools  that  literature  first 
flourished  under  the  fostering  care  of  men  whose 
minds  were  steeped  in  Scripture.  If  the  light  of 
learning  shone  brightly  in  England  during  the  eighth 
century,  when  darkness  threatened  the  continent,  it  is 
not  to  be  forgotten  that  it  was  the  monasteries  that 
gave  protection  to  the  light — it  was  the  monks  who 
toiled  faithfully  to  perpetuate  learning  in  the  land. 
Such  literature  as  was  reproduced  or  created  anew  in 
these  church  houses  had  of  necessity  the  stamp  of 
Scripture  upon  it.  It  was  shaped  by  the  hands  of  men 
who  were  accustomed  to  the  touch  of  the  sacred 
parchments.  The  Scriptoria  or  writing-rooms  of  the 
monasteries,  where  Latin  works  were  copied  and 
illuminated,  where  the  lives  of  saints  were  compiled, 
where  records  of  past  history  and  of  current  events 
were  kept,  and  where  other  forms  of  literature  were 
essayed — these  early  literary  workshops  must  have 
been  redolent  with  the  perfume  of  the  Word  of  God. 
Not  only  was  literature  preserved  in  this  atmosphere, 
but  literary  revivals  were  fostered  by  the  monastic  in- 
stitutions.   It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  Book  which 


THE  HOLY:  GRAIL  lOI; 

they  so  highly  prized,  over  whose  pages  devoted  copy- 
ists spent  years  of  labor,  was  a  constant  stimulus  to 
the  making  of  books. 

It  is  not  a  very  far  cry  from  the  time  of  Alfred  to 
the  Norman  Conquest,  an  event  which  re-shaped  the 
destiny  of  England,  and  furnished  vast  and  new  ma- 
terial for  the  making  of  literature.  The  interval  was 
not  prolific  in  literary  workmanship,  notwithstanding 
the  impulse  given  to  education  by  Alfred  the  Great. 
The  Danes  would  not  surrender  their  hopes  of  a  con- 
quered England :  King  Cnut  must  yet  come.  Even  this 
foreigner  of  rude  world  stock  was  inspired  by  the 
Christian  song  of  England.  Hearing  the  monks  sing- 
ing through  the  open  windows  of  a  monastery  as  his 
boat  went  by,  Cnut  himself  broke  forth  in  poetic 
strain : — 

"Merrily  sang  the  monks  in  Ely, 

When  Cnut  the  King  rode  by; 

Row,  Knights,  near  the  land, 

And  hear  ye  the  monks*  song." 

Barren  as  the  period  is  there  are  nevertheless  names 
that  are  starred  in  the  history  of  the  time  as  lovers  of 
the  Word  of  God  and  promoters  of  literature.  Such 
an  one  is  Saint  Dunstan,  who  is  quite  as  renowned  for 
his  ability  in  managing  men  and  affairs  as  for  his 
ascetic  sanctity — "first  in  the  line  of  ecclesiastical 
statesmen  who  counted  among  them  Lanfranc  and 
Wolsey,  and  ended  in  Laud."  (Green.)  Early  in- 
spired by  the  books  that  he  found  in  the  monastery  at 
Glastonbury,  he  gave  himself  to  a  life  of  study.  Litera- 
ture both  sacred  and  profane  became  his  passion,  and 
to  this  love  of  his  heart  he  added  the  kindred  arts  of 
music,  painting  and  designing;  and  his  influence  was 


m     TfiE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

strongly  felt  in  the  literary  revival  that  took  place  in 
the  reign  of  King  Edgar.  Dunstan  took  up  the  edu- 
cational work  of  Alfred  the  Great  and  sought  to  pro- 
mote learning  and  literature  in  the  realm.  It  is 
Dunstan's  harp  on  the  wall,  that  gave  forth  tones 
without  mortal  touch,  that  has  fascinated  the  minds 
of  succeeding  generations  more  even  than  his  achieve- 
ments as  an  educator  and  statesman.  The  tradition 
is  at  least  valuable  as  illustrating  the  profound  relation 
of  religion  to  the  fine  arts. 

Such  writings  as  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  old 
England  preceding  the  conquest  bear  almost  invariably 
the  marks  of  Biblical  influence.  Professor  Cook  of 
Yale  University  has  rendered  a  useful  service  to 
scholars  by  compiling  the  Biblical  quotations  to  be 
found  in  old  English  prose  writers.^  The  effect  is  to 
deepen  our  impression  of  the  active  influence  of  the 
Bible  upon  our  early  writers. 

An  excellent  illustration  is  found  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  tenth  century  in  the  case  of  Aelfric  whose  ser- 
mons or,  Homilies  are  to  be  regarded  as  literature  be- 
cause of  a  certain  picturesqueness  and  fervor  which 
characterize  them.  It  is  Aelfric  who  has  left  us  a 
unique  and  forcible  exhortation  upon  "Reading  the 
Scriptures."  "Whoever,"  he  says,  "would  be  one  with 
God  must  often  pray,  and  often  read  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. For  when  we  pray  we  speak  to  God ;  and  when 
we  read  the  Bible  God  speaks  to  us."  "Aelfric's  is  the 
last  great  name,"  says  Morley,  "in  the  story  of  our 
literature  before  the  Conquest."    His  style  is  described 

*  Biblical  Quotations  in  Old  English  Prose  Writers,  Al- 
bert S.  Cook,  Professor  of  the  English  Language  and  Litera- 
ture in  Yale  University. 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL  108 

as  "lucid,  fluent,  forcible,  and  of  graceful  finish,"  a 
verdict  that  is  somewhat  surprising  in  view  of  the  pre- 
vailing idea  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  language  as  too 
rugged  for  any  fineness  and  lightness  of  touch.  Writ- 
ing of  Aelfric's  style  Earle  says:  "The  English  of 
these  Homilies  is  splendid :  indeed,  we  may  confidently 
say  that  here  English  appears  fully  qualified  to  be  the 
medium  of  the  highest  learning." 

Besides  his  Homilies  and  Lives  of  the  Saints, 
Aelfric  prepared  an  English  grammar,  a  Latin  diction- 
ary, and  a  Colloquium,  the  last  designed  to  teach  boys 
to  speak  Latin  correctly.  Even  this  Colloquy  contains 
some  references  to  the  Bible.^  He  made  Anglo-Saxon 
versions  of  the  books  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  also  of 
Joshua,  Judges,  Esther,  Job,  part  of  Kings,  and  the 
books  of  Judith  and  the  Maccabees,  thus  taking  his 
place  early  in  the  long  line  of  devoted  scholars  who 
have  translated  the  Scripture  into  English,  and  have 
thereby  served  to  sweeten  the  wells  of  English  thought 
and  literature.  Aelfric's  life  extended  probably  within 
a  single  generation's  reach  of  the  Conqueror. 

With  the  coming  of  the  Normans  a  new  and  power- 
ful influence  entered  into  the  making  of  English  litera- 
ture. The  Normans  or  Northmen  were  of  the  same 
rude  stock  that  had  already  harassed  Ene^land  in  the 
days  of  King  Alfred,  but  they  had  mellowed  during 
several  generations  under  southern  sunshine.  They 
had  adopted  the  Christian  faith,  and  with  their  own 
rugged    love    of    poetry    had    embraced    the    softer 

*See  Biblical  Quofations,  Prof  Cook,  p.  127.  See  also 
in  extenso  qtiotations  from  the  Bible  in  Aelfric's  Versions  of 
St.  Basil's  Hexameron  and  Admonitio  ad  Filium  Spiritualem 
and  his  Homilies  and  Lives  of  the  Saints. 


104     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

cadences  of  France.  They  were  most  hospitable  to 
new  ideas  and  influences.  Thus  when  Lanfranc  came 
from  Italy  he  was  warmly  received  in  Normandy  and 
established  at  Bee  a  school  that  became,  a  historian 
affirms,  "the  most  famous  school  of  Christendom." 
This  school  gave  to  England  not  only  Lanfranc  him- 
self, but  even  a  greater  scholar  Anselm,  the  earliest  of 
the  schoolmen,  both  of  whom  pursued  their  thinking 
under  the  spell  of  God's  Word. 

It  cannot  be  stated  that  the  Normans  brought  much 
literature  with  them  to  England,  but  they  brought  the 
capacity  for  literature.  In  a  sense  they  came  singing 
to  the  conquest,  for  the  King's  minstrel  Taillefer,  sing- 
ing as  he  fought  and  as  he  died,  was  a  forerunner  of  a 
new  age  of  literature.  It  has  been  picturesquely  said 
that  "England  was  conquered  to  the  music  of  verse 
and  settled  to  the  sound  of  the  harp."  (Stopford 
Brooke.)  One  can  already  hear  in  the  Song  of  Ro- 
land, which  inspired  the  Norman  knights  to  fight,  the 
prelude  of  that  great  chorus  of  song  which  was  soon 
to  fill  the  throats  of  trouveres,  troubadours,  jongleurs 
and  minnesingers  in  France  and  Germany.  When  the 
amalgamation  of  conquered  and  conqueror  was  com- 
plete, there  had  been  produced  a  new  people  of  com- 
posite strength  and  promise,  in  whose  hands  was  a 
new  and  wonderful  instrument  of  expression — the 
English  language. 

The  Normans  brought  with  them  "the  vitalizing 
breath  of  song,  the  fresh  and  youthful  spirit  of  ro- 
mance." A  new  feeling  manifests  itself  in  English 
literature,  and  a  new  and  fascinating  mode  of  expres- 
sion begins  to  appear.  Troubadour  and  trouvere  were 
added  to  English  life,  and  Norman-French  chansons 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL  105 

were  heard  in  the  castles  and  on  the  highways.  A 
romantic  spirit  was  in  the  land,  and  the  way  would 
soon  be  opened  for  Langland,  Chaucer,  Shakespeare 
and  all  the  great  immortals  down  to  Tennyson,  who 
have  sung  in  idealistic  strain  the  old  romance  of  the 
mingled  blood  of  Saxon,  Celt  and  Norman. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  our  purpose  to  undertake 
here  a  discussion  of  the  vast  changes  that  came  into 
English  society  with  the  Norman  Conquest.  Every 
student  knows  that  these  changes,  registered  in  the 
language  and  customs  of  the  people,  are  incalculable. 

We  are  interested  especially  in  the  inquiry  as  to  the 
influence  of  the  Bible  upon  this  outburst  of  the  ro- 
mantic spirit.  The  Normans  were  Christians :  they 
were  in  fact  among  the  first  to  establish  the  institu- 
tions of  Christian  chivalry.  To  such  a  people  with 
their  mingled  temper  of  heroism  and  poetry  the  Bible 
would  make  a  strong  appeal.  Its  poetry,  its  lofty 
idealism,  its  abundant  material  for  imagination,  would 
find  in  the  genius  of  the  conquerors  a  field  ready  for 
cultivation. 

This  is  best  seen  in  the  growth  of  the  Arthurian 
legend,  or  as  it  is  later  known,  the  romance  of  King 
Arthur's  Round  Table  and  the  Holy  Grail.  For  it 
was  in  the  period  immediately  following  the  Norman 
Conquest  that  the  old  Celtic  romances  were  taken  up 
and  given  new  life  and  color  and  a  permanent  place 
in  English  literature.  The  early  history  of  the  Ar- 
thurian romance  is  shrouded  in  obscurity.  Many  vol- 
umes have  been  devoted  to  diligent  inquiry  into  the 
subject.^    Apparently  the  romance  is  of  Celtic  origin, 

■  See  a  late  and  valuable  book,  The  Quest  of  the  Holy  Grail, 
Miss  Jessie  L.  Weston.     Miss  Weston  abandons  both  the 


106     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

starting  either  in  Wales  among  the  old  Britons,  driven 
thither  by  the  Saxon  invasion,  or  in  Brittany  among 
the  Celts  who  had  migrated  across  the  channel.  As 
the  Greeks  had  their  Homeric  epic,  the  Romans  their 
iEneid,  the  Teutonic  people  their  Nibelungen  Lied, 
the  Spanish  peoples  their  Song  of  the  Cid,  so  also  the 
Celts  had  their  Arthurian  romance,  which  through 
many  changes  and  cycles  passed  at  length  into  English 
life  and  literature  as  the  national  epic.  "For  nearly  a 
thousand  years  the  Arthurian  legends,  which  lie  at  the 
basis  of  Tennyson's  'Idylls  of  the  King,'  have  fur- 
nished unlimited  material,  not  to  English  poets  alone, 
but  to  the  poets  of  all  Christendom."* 

In  its  native  form  it  was  an  excellent  seed-plot  for 
Scriptural  ideas,  and,  as  might  have  been  expected,  the 
influence  of  the  Bible  became  manifest  in  this  cycle  of 
national  song  as  soon  as  a  fair  opportunity  presented 
itself.  Such  an  opportunity  appeared  after  the  Nor- 
man Conquest,  when  the  spirit  of  Norman  song 
entered  into  English  thought.  About  the  middle  of 
the  twelfth  century  Geoffrey,  a  monk  at  the  Bene- 
dictine monastery  at  Monmouth,  issued  a  History  of 
the  Kings  of  Britain,  containing  the  story  of  King 
Arthur.  Geoffrey  has  been  called  the  first  story-teller 
in  England,  albeit  he  termed  his  work  "history,"  and 
his  medium  was  Latin.  What  he  did  for  the  Welsh 
legends  Washington  Irving  did  hundreds  of  years 
Christian  and  Folk-Lore  theories  of  origin,  and  propounds 
what  she  terms  "The  Ritual  Theory,"  which  sees  in  the  Grail 
tradition  "the  confused  and  fragmentary  record  of  a  special 
form  of  nature-worship,"  which  was  elevated  to  the  dignity 
of  a  "mystery." 

*  See  The  Arthurian  Legends,  Richard  Jones,  in  Warner's 
Library  of  the  World's  Best  Literature,  Vol.  II,  p.  886. 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL  107 

later  for  the  Knickerbocker  tales.  The  publication  of 
Geoffrey's  Historia  marked  "an  epoch  in  the  literary 
history  of  Europe/'  As  a  result  the  Arthurian  and 
Round  Table  romances  were  within  a  half  century 
found  in  Italy  and  Germany,  as  well  as  in  England 
and  France.  Back  and  forth  the  story  went  from 
England  to  the  continent,  sometimes  in  Latin,  and 
again  in  French  dress.  Geoffrey's  treatment  "flushed 
the  Celtic  romances  with  color  and  filled  them  with 
new  life,"  and  prepared  them  to  become  the  vehicle 
of  Christian  thought. 

Just  when  the  legend  of  the  Holy  Grail  was  adopted 
into  the  Arthurian  romance  cannot  be  definitely  stated, 
but  it  is  at  this  point  that  we  discover  the  influence  of 
the  Bible  in  the  shaping  of  literature.  It  was  inevit- 
able that  it  would  leave  a  lasting  impress  upon  the 
sensitive  and  plastic  material  of  these  old  legends.  It 
required  only  some  master  hand  to  mould  and  blend 
the  spiritual  ideals  of  the  Scripture  with  the  cruder 
conceptions  of  the  Celtic  legends.  Quite  naturally 
thus  men  read  the  Bible  into  this  old  cycle  of  stories. 
Many  versions  of  the  history  of  King  Arthur  appeared 
in  different  countries  and  everywhere  went  wandering 
minstrels  chanting  the  fascinating  story  to  the  people. 
In  France  Chrestien  de  Troyes  gave  his  version,  which 
was  the  forerunner  of  Tennyson's  "Idylls."  In  Ger- 
many Wolfram  von  Eschenbach  wrote  his  "Parzival," 
which  made  possible  Wagner's  opera  of  "Parsifal"  in 
our  time. 

.  It  may  be  that  the  master  hand  needed  was  that  of 
Walter  Map  in  England,  for  it  was  he  apparently  who 
bound  the  Arthurian  romances  together,  made  impor- 
tant additions  in  the  interest  of  religion,  and  "put  the 


108     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

soul  of  poetry  and  spirituality  into  the  crude  legends 
of  King  Arthur."  Walter  Map's  work,  however,  was 
in  Latin.  It  may  be  true  that  it  was  jealousy  of  the 
popularity  of  the  legends  of  chivalry  that  induced  the 
church  to  invent  the  story  of  the  Sacred  Dish  or  San 
Grael.  However  this  may  have  been,  we  see  the  Bible 
vying  with  popular  legend  in  the  making  of  literature. 
It  was  left  to  another — and  he  a  most  interesting 
figure — to  put  the  matchless  story  into  an  EngHsh 
dress.  This  was  the  good  poet-priest  Layamon  whose 
Brut  appeared  in  the  year  1205.  His  own  account  of 
how  he  journeyed  far  until  he  found  three  books  to 
make  the  material  of  his  own  composition  has  stirred 
the  hearts  of  generations  of  book-lovers.  "Layamon 
laid  down  these  books  and  turned  the  leaves :  he  beheld 
them  lovingly :  may  the  Lord  be  gracious  to  him !  Pen 
he  took  with  fingers  and  wrote  a  book-skin,  and  the 
true  words  set  together  and  compressed  the  three 
books  into  one."  One  of  the  three  books  was  Bede's 
Ecclesiastical  History,  and  another  was  a  French 
translation  of  Geoffrey's  story  of  King  Arthur  by  an 
Anglo-Norman  poet  named  Wace.  Layamon  was  the 
pioneer  writer  of  English  romance.  It  is  interesting 
to  observe  that  the  same  hand  that  touched  the  books 
of  his  day  so  lovingly  and  wove  them  so  skilfully  into 
romance  in  native  dress,  must  also  have  known  the 
power  and  spirit  of  the  Bible.  Indeed  it  is  apparent 
that  the  Bible  by  this  time,  through  the  Christian 
legend  of  the  Holy  Grail,  had  laid  a  strong  hand  upon 
the  Arthurian  romances  and  made  them  tributary  to  a 
spiritual  purpose.  Thus  transformed  indeed,  the  old 
Celtic  legend  became  an  apologetic  for  the  doctrine  of 
the  Divine  Presence. 


THE  HOLY  GRAIL  109 

When  Sir  Thomas  Malory  wrote  his  La  Morte 
d' Arthur  about  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
the  preparation  for  Tennyson's  great  Christian  poem, 
"The  Idylls  of  the  King,"  was  complete.  Tennyson, 
however,  was  not  the  only  poet  who  yielded  to  the 
fascination  of  the  old  romance.  The  theme  indeed 
has  been  widely  used  in  English  and  German  litera- 
ture. Milton  hesitated  in  choosing  a  theme  for  his 
major  poem,  whether  to  select  the  story  of  Paradise 
or  the  search  for  the  Holy  Grail.  Wordsworth,  Lord 
Lytton,  Matthew  Arnold,  William  Morris  and  Swin- 
burne have  all  made  use  of  the  legend. 

The  American  writer,  James  Russell  Lowell,  made 
a  beautiful  adaptation  of  the  theme  in  "The  Vision  of 
Sir  Launfal."  Few  finer  examples  of  the  influence  of 
the  Bible  on  Hterature  can  be  given.  The  very  spirit 
of  Christ  breathes  in  the  poem.  When,  after  sharing 
his  crust  with  the  leper  and  giving  him  to  drink  from 
the  stream.  Sir  Launfal  hears  the  words  of  Christ  that 
"were  shed  softer  than  leaves  from  the  pine": — 

"Not  what  we  give,  but  what  we  share, — 
For  the  gift  without  the  giver  is  bare ; 
Who  gives  himself  with  his  alms  feeds  three, — 
Himself,  his  hungry  neighbor,  and  Me," 

we  realize  that  the  best  thought  of  the  New  Testament 
has  been  echoed  in  literature. 

.  The  core  of  the  old  legend  may  belong  to  Celtic 
mythology,  but  its  elaboration  shows  the  effect  of 
Biblical  facts  and  Christian  legend.  Folk-lore  might 
furnish  valiant  knights,  but  it  was  the  Scripture  that 
gave  them  their  Christian  temper  and  sent  them  forth 
in  their  quest  for  the  divine  life.     The  Arimathean's 


110     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

sacred  vessel,  wherein  he  was  reputed  to  have  caught 
some  of  the  blood  that  flowed  from  Christ's  wounds, 
was  only  a  convenient  symbol  that  was  grafted  on  to 
the  old  romance.  Gifted  men  like  Walter  Map,  Robert 
de  Barron,  the  poet-priest  Layamon,  Malory,  and  later 
Tennyson  and  Lowell,  inspired  by  the  Scripture, 
sowed  the  seeds  of  their  own  imagination  in  the  fertile 
soil  of  the  past,  producing  a  rich  harvest  in  our  litera- 
ture. It  is  to  say  the  least  a  remarkable  tribute  to  the 
influence  of  Biblical  thought  that  the  poem  which 
comes  nearest  to  being  the  national  epic  of  the  English- 
speaking  peoples,  is  bound  up  so  closely  both  in  senti- 
ment and  form  with  the  material  of  the  Christian 
Scripture. 


XI 

RELIGIOUS  DRAMA 

"The  Christian  drama,  remodeled  from  century  to 
century,  was  represented  for  four  hundred  years  be- 
fore immense  multitudes;  and  is  a  unique  phenomenon 
in  the  history  of  literature/' — ^Jusserand. 

IT  is  remarkable  that  in  the  early  centuries  of  Eng- 
lish history  the  Bible  should  have  come  so  close 
to  the  daily  life  of  the  people.  The  obstacles 
were  very  great,  and  none  greater  than  the  barrier  of 
language.  Notwithstanding  this,  and  the  absence  of 
means  of  circulation,  the  Bible  gradually  found  its 
way  into  the  heart  of  England. 

There  were  numerous  media  of  communication, 
such  as  liturgical  services,  pictures,  ecclesiastical 
legends,  and  the  vernacular  homilies  of  priests  and 
friars,  by  which  popular  knowledge  of  the  Bible  was 
fed.  Such  knowledge  might  be  indirect  and  im- 
perfect :  it  was  none  the  less  an  influence  in  leavening 
the  national  life.^ 

There  was  still  another  means  of  bringing  the  Scrip- 
ture to  the  attention  of  the  people  that  was  in  wide  use 
in  the  centuries  before  the  advent  of  the  printing 
press.    This  was  the  dramatic  representation  of  Scrip- 

^See  Illustrated  History  of  English  Literature,  Gamett 
and  Gosse,  Vol.  I,  p.  205. 

Ill 


112     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITEHATURE 

ture  scenes,  incidents  and  teachings  in  the  form  of 
Mysteries,  Miracle-Plays  and  Moralities,  which  flour- 
ished in  western  Europe  from  the  tenth  and  eleventh 
centuries  down  to  the  dawn  of  modern  times — indeed 
until  the  printing  press,  the  versions,  and  the  Prot- 
estant Reformation  displaced  them.  It  is  on  the  whole 
such  an  interesting  development  of  the  popular  mind, 
and,  as  Jusserand  has  said,  such  "a  unique  phenome- 
non in  the  history  of  literature,"  that  we  cannot  pass 
it  by  in  our  survey  of  the  conditions  that  gave  to  the 
Bible  a  profound  influence  in  the  making  of  English 
literature.  "As  to  England,  it  was  in  the  ruins  and 
debris  of  the  Miracle-Play  and  Morality  that  Eliza- 
bethan drama  struck  its  deepest  roots,  and  later  drama 
owes  more  to  these  rude  precursors  than  has  been 
customarily  observed  or  recognized."^ 

In  the  study  of  this  early  drama  we  may  expect  to 
meet  much  that  is  extravagant  and  fantastic.  No  one, 
however,  can  study  attentively  the  process  by  which 
these  plays  were  evolved  without  realizing  that  the 
Bible  was  in  these  centuries  the  very  warp  and  woof 
of  popular  thought.  The  dramatization  might  be  very 
grotesque  and  misleading — nevertheless  it  is  clear  that 
these  Miracle- Plays  were  the  far-away  beginnings  of  a 
national  drama  and  of  a  real  dramatic  literature. 

It  is  needless  to  discuss  the  existence  of  the  dramatic 
instinct  in  humanity.  The  evidences  are  too  wide- 
spread and  too  convincing  to  be  denied.  What  is  not 
so  commonly  recognized  is  the  connection  between  re- 
ligion and  drama.  The  old  Greek  drama  was  essen- 
tially a  part  of  a  religious  celebration.  Rom^m  drama 
in  like  manner  is  said  to  have  had  a  religious  origin. 

*  Elizabethan  Drama,  Felix  E,  Schelling,  Vol.  I,  p.  i. 


REHGIOUS  DRAMA  US 

The  same  is  true  also  of  Indian  and  Chinese  drama. 
The  Christian  Church  had  found  the  drama  hope- 
lessly degenerate  and  therefore  had  suppressed  it.  It 
could  not,  however,  suppress  the  dramatic  tastes  and 
instincts  of  the  mind.  These  only  awaited  an  oppor- 
tunity for  future  expression. 

Strange  to  relate  it  was  the  church  itself  that  re- 
vived the  drama  for  purposes  of  its  own,  after  having 
once  suppressed  it.  "Little  as  it  may  now  bear  traces 
of  its  origin,  the  theatre  of  England  is  the  offspring  of 
religious  worship.  Its  cradle  was  upon  the  steps  of 
the  altar,  and  in  the  years  of  its  struggling  infancy  it 
was  nurtured  by  ecclesiasticism  and  fostered  by  cleri- 
cal care."^ 

It  was  the  church's  own  consciousness  of  a  threat- 
ened failure  that  gave  birth  to  mediaeval  religious 
drama.  Just  as  Aldhelm  of  Malmesbury  in  an  earlier 
century  stood  forth  in  the  garb  of  a  minstrel  on  a 
bridge  and  sang  Scriptural  songs  to  the  people  as  they 
passed  by,  so  now  the  church  in  the  garb  of  dramatist 
went  forth  to  meet  the  people  with  its  Scripture  re- 
enforced  by  the  appeal  and  color  of  the  stage.  It  was 
a  surprising,  and  we  are  bound  to  add,  creditable 
instance  of  adaptation.  The  Latin  Bible  being  a 
closed  book  to  the  people,  the  clergy  faced  the  neces- 
sity of  finding  some  means  of  making  the  appeal  of 
the  Bible  clearer  and  stronger  in  the  popular  mind. 
If  the  meaning  of  the  ritual  was  not  level  to  their 
understanding,  if  the  teaching  of  the  Scripture  failed 
to  impress  the  people  vividly,  the  problem  was  to  dis- 
cover a  method  of  meeting  such  a  situation  as  this. 

The  answer  which  the  clergy  gave  to  the  problem 

8  The  Miracle  Play  in  England,  Sidney  W.  Clarke,  p.  4. 


114     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

was  the  Mystery  or  Miracle-Play,  which  in  the  begin- 
ning was  little  more  than  an  acted  sermon.  The 
answer  was  crude  and  childish:  nevertheless  it  was  a 
not  unworthy  effort  to  meet  a  difficult  situation.  And 
from  it  we  should  not  be  unwilling  to  learn,  even 
down  to  the  present  hour,  that  the  resources  of  the 
Bible  for  popular  appeal  are  capable  of  surprising 
variety. 

Moreover  it  is  not  to  be  considered  strange  or  un- 
expected that  the  dramatic  instinct  should  have  laid 
hands  upon  the  Bible.  The  Bible  is  full  of  dramatic 
material.  It  affords  abundant  opportunity  for  such 
appeal.  It  frankly  invites  such  a  method.  Given  an 
age  whose  sense  of  reverence  was  not  yet  fully  refined 
by  spiritual  ideals,  whose  imagination  was  still  in 
bondage  to  the  sensual,  and  whose  need  of  action  was 
more  insistent  than  its  practice  of  meditation,  and  you 
have  a  state  of  mind  wherein  men  would  see  in  the 
Bible  a  storehouse  of  fancy,  a  realm  of  wealth  in  pic- 
ture, and  a  wide  arena  for  everyday  action.  To  an 
age  of  simplicity  and  childlikeness  the  Bible  must  have 
seemed  like  a  great  stage,  and  its  men  and  women  like 
God's  players.  The  people  of  that  day  were  more 
concerned  with  what  they  saw  in  the  Bible  than  with 
what  they  felt.  They  "visualized  all  the  mysteries  of 
faith."  Later  ages  have  had  opportunity  to  find  the 
deeper  things  of  the  Scripture.  The  early  impact  was 
visual  and  pictorial :  it  was  vivid  and  literal. 

In  this  state  of  mind  the  Bible  was  not  a  strange 
book,  but  one  that  was  very  near  to  the  daily  life  of 
the  people.  With  perfect  ease  they  adapted  and  as- 
similated the  scenes  and  incidents  of  the  Scripture  and 
gave  them  a  familiar  setting  of  everyday  life.     The 


RELIGIOUS  DRAMA  115 

difficulty  which  later  ages  have  experienced  of  con- 
ceiving of  the  Bible  as  a  modern  book  was  not  their 
difficulty  at  all.  It  was  to  them  a  rescript  of  their  own 
life:  and  by  an  easy  effort  of  imagination  they  read 
themselves  into  the  Book. 

It  was  somewhat  in  this  way  we  suppose,  that  the 
dramatic  instinct  of  the  Middle  Ages  took  hold  of  the 
ready  material  of  the  Scripture  and  turned  it  into  the 
popular  and  widely  influential  Miracle-Play.  They 
"naturalized  patriarchs  and  prophets  as  their  own 
countrymen."*  In  the  historical  portions  of  the  Old 
Testament  these  mediaeval  dramatists  found  a  great 
company  of  personages  who  readily  took  their  places 
on  the  stage  as  actors.  All  the  elements  of  the  drama 
were  present  in  forms  so  picturesque  and  so  appealing 
as  to  make  the  task  of  the  religious  playwright  of  the 
day  not  wholly  arduous.  That  the  playwrights  were 
at  the  outset  members  of  the  clergy  would  insure  the 
sermonic  quality  of  the  plays:  the  time  came,  of 
course,  when  this  was  not  so  certain.  Sir  Walter 
Scott  in  a  familiar  passage  in  The  Abbot  has  shown 
us  to  what  a  sorry  pass  these  Scriptural  plays  came 
in  a  later  age,  when  the  solemnities  of  religious  in- 
struction gave  place  "to  those  jocular  personages,  the 
Pope  of  Fools,  the  Boy-Bishop,  and  the  Abbot  of  Un- 
reason."' 

But  for  generations  the  Miracle-Play  furnished  a 
supplement  to  the  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  Scrip- 
ture that  was  not  to  be  despised.  The  tragic  scenes  of 
the  Bible  were  especially  rich  in  dramatic  power,  and 

*  Illustrated  History  of  English  Literature,  Garnett  and 
Gosse,  Vol.  I,  p.  205. 
« The  Abbot,  Chapter  14. 


116     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

it  is  easy  to  see  how  these  mediseval  artists  were 
tempted  to  overwork  such  scenes.  The  Fall  of  Man, 
the  Sacrifice  of  Isaac,  the  Slaughter  of  the  Innocents, 
the  Day  of  Judgment — such  striking  scenes  as  these 
were  certain  to  figure  largely  in  the  minds  of  the 
clerical  playwrights,  who  were  willing  by  whatsoever 
means  they  could  to  teach  the  stupendous  lesson  of 
Revelation.  Nor  was  the  Crucifixion  omitted,  for  the 
sense  of  reverence  however  keen  was  as  yet  not  fully 
developed — they  saw  no  irreverence  in  following  the 
story  of  the  Gospel  in  their  dramatic  representation  to 
its  tragic  close.  The  Passion  Play  of  modern  Europe, 
which  no  amount  of  trained  reverence  has  been  able 
to  displace,  is  the  survival  of  this  mediseval  tragedy  of 
the  Cross. 

In  all  this  process  of  dramatization  there  was  no 
actual  making  of  literature,  for  these  religious  drama- 
tists did  not  produce  plays  for  a  reading  public. 
Nevertheless  it  was  akin  to  the  making  of  literature, 
and  undoubtedly  preparatory  to  it.  It  kept  alive  the 
dramatic  instincts  of  the  people,  fed  their  thought  and 
imagination  with  Biblical  fact  and  material,  and 
helped  to  form  the  national  mind  after  a  Biblical 
mold.  Thus  this  early  religious  drama,  imperfect  as 
it  was,  paved  the  way  for  that  dramatic  outburst  of 
the  future  which  became  one  of  the  chief  glories  of 
English  literature. 

For  our  part  we  are  concerned  to  make  clear  that 
the  origins  of  our  dramatic  expression  in  literature 
were  in  the  Bible.  It  is  true  that  the  value  of  the 
Miracle-Play  as  literature  is  inconsiderable.  But  it  is 
also  true  that  "it  preserved  a  conception  of  the  drama 
in  the  minds  of  humble  people  throughout  the  rude 


RELIGIOUS  DRAMA  117 

ages,  and  it  expanded  their  views  and  helped  them  to 
realize  bygone  times  and  distant  regions  of  the 
world."®  Moreover  it  did  much  to  Hnk  the  minds  of 
Englishmen  to  the  action  and  motive  of  the  Scripture : 
it  helped  to  form  in  them  a  Biblical  norm  of  thought: 
it  gave  them  a  Biblical  background  for  their  everyday 
life.  Foreign  to  our  modern  ideas  as  is  the  notion  of 
acting  the  Bible,  it  is  nevertheless  easy  to  realize  some- 
thing of  the  profound  effect  upon  popular  thought  of 
dramatic  presentations  of  the  Scripture  that  were  con- 
ducted year  in  and  year  out,  not  for  a  short  time  only, 
but  for  generations. 

It  was  the  Normans,  apparently,  who  brought  the 
germ  of  the  Miracle-Play  to  England  at  the  Conquest. 
With  their  love  of  shows  and  spectacles  they  had 
evolved  special  forms  of  dramatic  entertainment  of  a 
religious  nature,  and  these  they  brought  with  them 
across  the  channel.  Later,  when  the  new  English 
tongue  began  to  assert  itself  against  the  French  and 
Anglo-Norman,  the  religious  drama  became  immensely 
popular.  Wandering  minstrels,  jongleurs  and  story- 
tellers, saw  the  possibilities  of  this  popular  form  of 
entertainment,  and  went  about  on  holidays  and  on 
other  public  occasions  acting  Bible  stories  and  legends 
of  the  saints.  It  was  the  Bible  that  was  the  principal 
source  of  inspiration.  "We  are  not  surprised,"  says 
Missi  Scudder,  "to  find  that  the  drama  of  the  race 
which  had  produced  Caedmon  and  Cynewulf  was 
almost  wholly  Biblical."  If  the  Miracle-Play  was  not 
in  its  germ  indigenous  to  England,  it  found  there  a 
congenial  soil.     After  the  Norman  Conquest  it  grew 

®  Illustrated  History  of  English  History,  Garnett  and 
Gosse,  Vol.  I,  p.  237. 


118     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

apace.  The  earliest  known  date  for  a  Miracle-Play  in 
England  is  in  the  twelfth  century.  In  the  year  1264 
the  festival  of  Corpus  Christi,  involving  a  procession 
in  the  open  air,  was  instituted. 

'The  fourteenth  century  saw  the  rehgious  drama  at 
its  height  in  England:  the  fifteenth  saw  its  decay:  the 
sixteenth  its  death."^  It  was  not  until  the  year  1575 
that  the  archbishop  stopped  the  representations  at 
York.  Shakespeare  was  a  youth  in  the  town  on  the 
Avon  at  this  time.  No  doubt  he  had  witnessed  the 
plays.  Indeed  his  home  was  in  the  neighborhood  of 
one  of  the  principal  centers  of  the  drama  at  Coventry. 

The  church  was  driven  by  an  emergency  to  adopt 
the  popular  religious  drama  of  the  fairs  and  holidays. 
These  public  occasions  clashed  with  the  festivals  of 
the  church,  and  when  the  clergy  found  that  the  people 
preferred  the  popular  entertainment  of  the  streets  to 
the  services  of  the  church,  they  promptly  appropriated 
the  drama  and  carried  it  into  the  churches. 

It  began  in  a  very  simple  way.  *'On  great  feast 
days,"  writes  Miss  Scudder,  "white-robed  choristers 
representing  the  Christmas  shepherds  and  the  Easter 
angels  detached  themselves  from  the  rest  of  the  choir 
or  clergy,  and  with  special  chants,  with  gestures,  later 
with  more  pronounced  action,  made  visible  to  wor- 
shipers who  could  understand  religion  best  through 
their  eyes,  the  central  facts  of  the  Gospel  story."  The 
immediate  result  was  that  the  churches  were  crowded. 
Soon  these  embryonic  plays  passed  from  the  altar  to 
the  porch,  and  thence  for  the  convenience  of  both 
actors  and  people,  to  the  churchyard,  and  finally  they 

"^Literary  History  of  the  English  People,  J,  J.  Jusserand, 
Vol.  I,  p.  489. 


RELIGIOUS  DRAMA  119 

left  the  church  altogether,  and  went  into  the  streets 
and  open  places  of  the  town. 

The  first  actors  were  the  clergy  themselves,  but 
when  the  plays  went  out  into  the  streets,  they  found 
other  friends,  although  the  clergy  continued  to  act  for 
some  time.  In  due  time  the  Latin  language  was  aban- 
doned and  the  plays  were  produced  in  the  language  of 
the  people.  Secular  actors  of  course,  came  to  the 
front,  and  the  minstrels  were  quick  to  lend  a  hand. 
Soon  the  plays  assumed  the  form  of  pageants  or 
movable  theaters  which  were  moved  about  from 
place  to  place  in  the  towns  on  appointed  days. 
The  guilds  presently  took  up  the  plays  and  became 
responsible  for  their  annual  presentation.  A  sort  of 
popular  education  in  the  Scripture  was  carried  along 
with  these  dramatic  presentations.  Where  each  guild 
had  its  own  piece  and  each  craftsman  his  assignment, 
there  was,  of  course,  a  very  intensive  acquaintance 
with  the  Bible  being  fostered.  When  these  trade 
guilds  thus  undertook  the  Miracle-Plays  England  had 
in  embryo  a  national  drama — and  it  was  founded  on 
the  Bible. 

An  examination  of  the  lists  of  plays  belonging  to 
the  several  cycles,  reveals  the  scope  of  the  early  re- 
ligious drama.  The  order  of  the  Chester  plays  for  ex- 
ample was  as  follows: — The  Fall  of  Lucifer,  the 
Creation  of  the  World,  the  Ark  and  the  Flood,  the 
Histories  of  Lot  and  Abraham  and  the  Sacrifice  of 
Isaac,  the  Story  of  Balaam  and  Balaak.  Then  the 
Birth  of  Christ,  the  Shepherds*  Play,  the  Visit  of  the 
Three  Kings,  the  Massacre  of  the  Innocents,  Christ  in 
the  Temple,  the  Temptation  in  the  Wilderness.  And 
§p  on  to  the  Last  Supper,  the  Passion,  the  Harrowing 


120     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

of  Hell,  the  Resurrection  and  the  Ascension,  the 
Descent  of  the  Spirit  and  the  Last  Judgment.  The 
York  Cycle  contained  a  play  on  the  Lord's  Prayer. 

The  different  stories  were  assigned  as  far  as  pos- 
sible to  appropriate  guilds.  Thus  the  Creation  of  Eve 
and  the  Fall  of  Man  were  given  by  the  Masons'  Guild, 
the  Sacrifice  of  Isaac  by  the  Butchers,  the  Building  of 
the  Ark  by  the  Shipwrights,  the  Flood  by  the  Fisher- 
men. In  all  this  we  see  the  tendency  to  incorporate 
the  scenes  of  the  Bible  in  the  popular  life.  They  con- 
ceived of  the  Holy  Story,  as  has  been  said,  as  if  it  had 
happened  in  Lancashire  or  London !  •  They  introduced 
the  manners  and  customs  of  the  day;  touches  of 
humor  even  were  not  forbidden.  In  the  Pageant  of 
the  Flood,  Noah's  wife  is  greatly  annoyed  because  her 
husband  has  not  told  her  about  his  preparations  for 
the  Flood.  She  did  not  believe  it  was  going  to  rain 
anyway,  and  she  would  not  go  in ! 

The  realism  of  these  plays  was  at  times  most 
audacious.  It  would  have  been  offensive  in  a  more 
sophisticated  age.  With  all  their  narrowness,  super- 
stition, and  misinterpretation,  they  must  have  pro- 
duced in  the  popular  mind  a  soil  that  in  time  would 
become  productive  of  great  things.  *'Not  only  in 
breadth  of  scope,"  writes  one,  "but  in  rough  truth  to 
human  life,  in  a  frank  realism  that  alternated  with 
conventional  types,  in  the  blending  of  tragedy  and 
comedy,  the  mediaeval  stage  prepared  the  way  for 
Shakespeare." 

We  cannot  here  follow  the  later  development  of  re- 
ligious drama  in  England  in  the  Moralities,  the  Inter- 
ludes, and  the  Chronicle-Plays.  The  character  of 
"Vice,"  for  example  in  the  Morality-Play  survives  in 


RELIGIOUS  DRAMA  1^ 

Shakespeare's  "fool."  These  all  are  but  links  of  con- 
nection with  the  great  Elizabethan  drama  that  was 
coming.  We  have  only  attempted  to  make  clear  in  this 
study  that  the  Bible  had  a  large  share,  through  the 
Miracle- Plays  and  the  training  of  the  people  in  dra- 
matic expression,  in  preparing  for  the  spacious  days 
of  the  Tudor  queen. 


XII 

MEN    OF    THE    THRESHOLD 

"Wyclif,  Langland,  and  Chaucer  are  the  three  great 
figures  of  English  literature  in  the  Middle  Ages." 

Jusserand. 

IT  is  convenient  to  divide  the  history  of  English 
Hterature  into  two  main  divisions — the  time  be- 
fore, and  the  time  after  Chaucer.  The  dividing 
line  is  in  the  fourteenth  century,  the  date  of  Chaucer's 
birth  being  approximately  1340.  In  this  century  a 
new  spirit  of  nationalism  arose  in  England,  and  the 
people  of  the  tight  little  island  took  to  themselves 
"wrestling  thews"  for  their  great  future.  All  through 
the  changeful  times  that  followed  the  Norman  Con- 
quest there  were  English  folk  who  held  stubbornly  to 
the  English  language,  and  by  the  early  part  of  the 
fourteenth  century  the  victory  had  been  won  over  the 
Norman-French  tongue.  By  the  year  1339  English 
took  the  place  of  French  in  the  schools,  and  in  1362 
Parliament  passed  an  act  requiring  that  pleadings  in 
law  courts  should  henceforth  be  in  English.^ 

It  was  in  every  sense  a  century  of  transition,  and 
Providence  provided  great  men  whose  mission  it  was 
to  close  old  doors  behind  them  and  open  new  doors 
before  them.  It  was  the  age  of  Dante  and  Petrarch 
and  Boccaccio,  of  Cimabue  and  Giotto,  and  of  Thomas 

i/4n  Introduction  to  English  Literature,  Henry  S.  Pan- 
coast,  p.  64. 

122 


MEN  OF  THE  THRESHOLD  128 

Aquinas  and  Thomas  a  Kempis.^  In  England  the 
starred  names  are  Chaucer — 

"the  first  warbler,  whose  sweet  breath 
Preluded  those  melodious  bursts  that  fill 
The  spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth" — 

Langland,  the  John  Bunyan  and  Thomas  Carlyle  of 
the  fourteenth  century ;  and  Wyclif,  the  ''morning  star 
of  the  Reformation."  One  is  tempted  to  add  the 
name  of  John  Gower — "moral  Gower"  he  was  called 
by  Chaucer.  Such  as  these  were  appointed  to  carry 
literature  forward  to  a  new  age. 

Medisevalism  was  breaking  up,  and  the  dawn  of  the 
modern  world  was  already  streaking  the  sky.  The 
spirit  of  the  Renaissance  was  making  itself  felt  in  the 
world's  organized  life.  It  is  difficult  to  realize  that 
the  age  of  Chaucer  was  still  the  age  of  chivalry,  and 
more  difficult  still  to  sense  the  fact  that  the  era  of  the 
printing  press  was  but  a  single  century  away. 

The  sky,  however,  was  dark  enough  in  England  in 
this  transition  century.  It  was  the  century  of  the 
Black  Death  that  carried  off  nearly  half  the  popula- 
tion and  left  a  pall  of  desolation  over  the  whole  land. 
There  were  also  serious  ferments  of  popular  feeling, 
as  well  as  actual  uprisings  of  the  people,  that  gave  a 
cast  of  unrest  and  anxiety  to  the  century. 

Moreover,  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  church  was 
quite  as  ominous.  Corruption  had  gone  deep  into  the 
life  of  the  church,  and  spiritual  leadership  had  well- 
nigh  departed  from  it.  The  old  learning  of  the  school- 
men remained,  but  the  influence  of  the  revived  clas- 
sicism  of   Italy  was   manifesting   itself.     The   three 

2  The  Christ  of  English  Poetry,  C.  W.  Stubbs,  D.D.,  p.  72. 


124     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

writers  whom  we  are  now  considering  represent  in 
themselves  and  their  work  the  conditions  of  change 
that  were  prevalent.  Langland  embodies  the  spirit  of 
social  unrest;  Chaucer  betokens  the  new  spirit  of 
learning;  Wyclif  represents  the  spirit  of  protest 
against  the  prevailing  corruptions  of  the  church. 

We  are  concerned  to  see  to  what  extent  the  Bible 
influenced  the  work  of  the  three  men  who  stood  thus 
upon  the  threshold  of  a  new  era.  It  is  to  the  latter 
half  of  the  fourteenth  century  that  students  go  for  the 
beginnings  of  a  real  English  literature,  and  it  is  im- 
portant to  see  that  the  Holy  Scripture  had  a  share  in 
shaping  the  thought  of  the  hour. 

In  the  case  of  Chaucer  we  have  one  who  cannot  be 
definitely  classed  among  religious  writers.  It  is  even 
difficult  to  determine  what  were  his  religious  views. 
Some  hold  that  he  was  an  ardent  follower  of  Wyclif. 
Others  quite  as  stoutly  maintain  that  there  is  no 
ground  whatsoever  for  this  view  of  the  poet's  religious 
position ;  that  he  was  in  reality  much  given  to  scepti- 
cism. The  truth  is  that  Chaucer's  mind  had  no  theo- 
logical bent.^  He  was  a  poet  of  nature.  See  him 
going  out  in  the  morning  and  kneeling  down  to  greet 
the  daisy !  The  freshness  of  the  morning,  the  song  of 
birds,  the  gay  life  and  color  of  the  outer  world — these 
were  the  things  that  appealed  to  him  most  of  all.  He 
was  an  interpreter  rather  of  what  he  saw  than  of  what 
he  felt.  The  open  sky,  the  sunny  road,  the  green 
hedges,  the  meadows,  and  more  than  all,  the  people 
traveling  through  the  world — all  these  interest  him 
much  more  than  introspective  questions  of  belief  and 

3  See  a  lengthy  discussion  of  Chaucer's  religion  In  Prof. 
Lounsbury*s  Studies  in  Chaucer,  Vol.  IL 


MEN  OF  THE  THRESHOLD  125 

experience.  His  abounding  humor,  his  banter,  his  fine 
feeUng  for  Hfe,  his  enthusiasm  for  human  folk  not- 
withstanding their  fauhs  and  foibles,  are  truly  con- 
tagious. He  believes  in  the  world,  and  nature  to  him 
is  "the  vicar  of  the  Almighty  Lord."  One  stroke  of 
his  pen  leads  us  out  into  the  beauty  of  God's  world. 

"Whan  that  Aprille  with  his  schowres  swoote 
The  drought  of  Marche  hath  perced  to  the  roote, 

♦  ♦  *  *  * 

Thanne  longen  folk  to  gon  on  pilgrimages."* 

He  is  full  of  joyous  outbursts,  as  if  the  very  youth 
of  the  world  had  obtained  an  incarnation  in  him.  Until 
Tennyson  came  no  one  knew  so  well  as  Chaucer  how 
to  listen  to  the  singing  of  birds. 

"Herkneth  these  blisful  briddes  how  they  synge, 
And  seth  the  fressche  floures  how  they  springe; 
Ful  is  myn  hert  of  revel  and  solaas,"^ 

Many  an  ardent  book-lover  knows  full  well  that  sweet 
treachery  of  the  heart  which  the  poet  so  naively 
describes : — 

"whan  that  the  monethe  of  May 
Is  comen,  and  that  I  here  the  foules  synge. 
And  that  the  floures  gynnen  for  to  sprynge, 
Fairwel  my  boke,  and  my  devocioun  !"^ 

Yet  in  his  own  way  we  cannot  escape  the  conviction 
that  Chaucer  was  truly  religious.  If  the  poet's  passion 
for  nature  carried  him  away  from  indoor  sanctuaries, 
he  was  not  lacking  in  worship  in  the  church  of  all- 
out-of-doors  ;  if  his  sincerity  led  him  to  hold  up  some 
religious  practices  to  ridicule,  he  was  none  the  less 

*  "The  Prologue."    Lines  i,  2,  12. 
6"Nonne  Prestes  Tale."  Lines  380-382. 
«  "Legende  of  Goode  Women." 


126     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

truly  reverent  toward  all  that  was  real  and  genuine  in 
religion;  if  he  did  not  pronounce  himself  upon 
doctrines  and  problems  that  other  men  of  his  age  were 
busying  themselves  about,  he  was  at  the  same  time 
sincere  in  his  appreciation  of  the  divine  touch  that 
produced  human  worth  and  peace.  When  the  poet 
sends  forth  his  pilgrims  it  is  plain  that  with  all  their 
good  humor  and  jollity  the  real  bond  of  fellowship  is 
religion.  It  is  the  undercurrent  of  their  thought.  It 
is  the  clear  implication  of  their  attitudes.  The  setting 
of  the  Canterbury  Tales  is  religious.  Like  writers 
of  fiction  in  every  age  Chaucer  was  bound  to  take  ac- 
count of  religion.''  Men  could  not  travel  and  converse 
together  as  did  the  Canterbury  pilgrims  without  dis- 
cussing religious  topics. 

But  we  may  go  further  and  say  that  the  idea  of  a 
pilgrimage  was  in  itself  a  Biblical  idea.  Literature 
has  used  the  idea  over  and  over  again,  and  its  common 
source  is  the  Bible.  Another  poet  of  Chaucer's  day, 
Langland,  as  we  shall  see,  made  use  of  the  pilgrimage 
idea;  while  the  great  Puritan  John  Bunyan  gave  it  a 
fixed  place  in  English  Hterature.  It  is  a  purely  Bibli- 
cal conception.  Men  are  passing  on  in  their  journey, 
and  it  is  a  matter  of  great  moment  as  to  what  they  are 
doing  and  saying  as  they  go.  Their  destination,  as  in 
the  case  of  Chaucer's  pilgrims,  may  be  only  an  earthly 
shrine;  even  so  the  dusty  road,  the  fellowship  of  the 
pilgrimage,  the  intimate  talk  by  the  way,  and  the  seri- 
ous destination  of  the  journey,  are  all  but  types  of 
human  life  at  its  best — journeying  on  to  a  greater  end. 
The  poet  does  not  speak  much  of  religion;  neverthe- 

"f  English  Literature  in  Account  with  Religion,  Edward 
Mortimer  Qiapman,  p.  500. 


MEN  OF  THE  THRESHOLD  187 

less  he  is  dealing  with  a  religious  subject,  and  he  can- 
not refrain  from  using  Biblical  material.  "Chaucer's 
pilgrims  were  sincerely  religious."®  We  hear  them 
talking  in  the  language  of  the  Scripture,  and  they  are 
quick  to  interpret  the  incidents  of  life  in  terms  of  the 
Word  of  God. 

Professor  Lounsbury  thinks  that  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  Chaucer's  acquaintance  with  the  authors  to 
whom  he  refers  was  very  profound.  "Such  is  not 
the  case,  however,  with  his  knowledge  of  one 
work.  .  .  .  This  is  the  Bible.  With  it  he  would  neces- 
sarily have  become  familiar  in  a  thousand  ways.  That 
fact  could  be  assumed,  even  did  his  writings  them- 
selves furnish  no  evidence  upon  the  point.  But  upon 
the  point  their  evidence  is  overwhelming.  His  refer- 
ences to  passages  and  persons  in  both  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testament,  as  well  as  in  the  Apocrypha,  are  so 
frequent  and  abundant  that  they  would  require  for 
their  full  exhibition  a  special  chapter."® 

The  poet's  high  estimation  of  women,  and  his  recog- 
nition of  marriage  as  deeply  sacred  in  God's  sight  are 
truly  Biblical.    He  who  wrote : — 

"A  wyf  is  Goddes  gifte  verrayly  ;**io 

*  *  *  ♦  » 
"Mariage  is  a  ful  gret  sacrament."^** 

*  *  *  *  *        » 
"For  wele  or  woo  sche  wol  him  not  forsake. 

Sche  is  not  wery  him  to  love  and  serve, 
Theigh  that  he  lay  bedred  til  that  he  sterve,"^® — 

^Introduction  to  the  Study  of  English  Literature,  Vida 
D.  Scudder,  p.  iii. 

9  Studies  in  Chaucer,  Thomas  R.  Lounsbury,  Vol.  II, 
p.  389. 

10  "The  Merchant's  Tale." 


128     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

had  not  read  the  Scripture  inattentively.  Chaucer's 
reticence  in  doctrine  is  seen  in  his  description  of  the 
dying  Arcite: — 

"His  spiryt  chaungede  hous,  and  wente  ther, 
As  I  cam  nevere,  I  can  nat  tellen  wher/'^^ 

Neverthdess  his  words  contain  the  echo  of  Scriptural 
thought.  In  another  place  the  poet  is  less  reserved  on 
the  subject  of  immortality. 

"Here  is  no  hoom,  here  is  but  wildernesse. 
Forth,  pilgrim,  forth !  forth  best,  out  of  thy  stal ! 
Look  upon  hye,  and  thonke  God  of  al."i2 

The  poet's  character  sketches  interest  us  because  of 
the  lightness  and  sympathy  of  his  touch;  but  more 
than  this,  because  of  a  certain  haunting  spirituality 
which  he  likes  above  all  to  give  to  his  characters.  Of 
the  Knight  he  says, 

"He  was  a  verray  perfight  gentil  knight." 

Of  the  young  Squire  he  writes, 

"Curteys  he  was,  lowely,  and  servysable." 

The  picture  of  the  Nonne  and  Prioress,  Eglentyne,  is 
unmistakable, 

"Ful  wel  sche  sang  the  servise  divyne." 

The  Clerk  also  is  clearly  set  before  us, 

"And  gladly  wolde  he  lerne,  and  gladly  teche  " 

In  the  Plowman  the  poet  has  incarnated  the  Lord's 
summary  of  the  law, 

"God  lovede  he  best  with  al  his  hoole  herte,— 
And  thanne  his  neighbour  right  as  himselve." 

11  "The  Knight's  Tale."  Lines  1951,  2.      ^^  "Good  Counseil." 


MEN  OF  THE  THRESHOLD  129 

Contrast  with  these  descriptions  the  man  whose  soul 
is  "in  his  purs,"  a  character  study  in  a  single  line,  em- 
bodying the  meaning  of  the  Master's  words,  "Where 
your  treasure  is,  there  will  your  heart  be  also."  Con- 
trast also  the  picture  of  the  Doctor  of  Physic, 

"His  studie  was  but  litel  on  the  Bible." 

Most  fascinating  of  all  Chaucer's  character  sketches  is 
his  description  of  the  Parish  Priest. 

"A  good  man  was  ther  of  religioun, 
And  was  a  poure  persoun  of  a  toun." 

The  picture  is  full  of  Biblical  color  and  rich  with 
Biblical  phrase.    He  is  poor  in  this  world's  goods, 

"But  riche  he  was  of  holy  thought  and  werk." 

He  was  "in  adversite  f ul  pacient ;"  and  his  wants  were 
few. 

"He  cowde  in  litel  thing  han  sufl5saunce." 

Like  the  Master  Himself,  his  meat  was  to  do  the 
Father's  will. 

"Wyd  was  his  parische,  and  houses  fer  asonder." 

He  was  no  shepherd  to  go  running  about  upon  errands 
of  self  while  the  flock  fared  ill. 

"But  dwelte  at  hoom,  and  kepte  wel  his  folde, 
So  that  the  wolf  ne  made  it  not  miscarye ; 
He  was  a  schepherde  and  no  mercenarie." 

The  pen  that  wrote  these  lines  was  only  following  the 
tracing  of  Jesus'  immortal  picture  of  contrast  between 
the  Good  Shepherd  and  the  Hireling.     (See  John  lo: 


130     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

7-18.)  Best  ot  all  are  the  lines  in  which  he  tells  us 
that  the  priest  was  "a  doer  of  the  Word," 

"But  Cristes  lore,  and  his  apostles  twelve, 
He  taughte,  but  first  he  folwede  it  himselve."i3 

It  is  a  beautiful  picture  of  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel, 
and  of  the  quiet  grandeur  of  a  consecrated  life.  One 
is  reminded  of  what  Mrs.  Browning  writes  of 
Chaucer — 

"with  his  infantine 
Familiar  clasp  of  things  divine."^* 

To  Chaucer  Christ  was  "the  first  stocke  father  of 
gentilnes;"  and  he  who  "desireth  gentil  for  to  bee" 
must  "followe  his  trace."  No  poet  of  all  the  ages  has 
paid  a  higher  tribute  to  the  grand  old  name  of  gentle- 
man! 

"All  weare  he  miter,  crowne,  or  diademe."^^ 

Three  of  the  Canterbury  Tales  are  distinctly  re- 
ligious. These  are  the  "Second  Nun's  Tale  of  St. 
Cecelia,"  the  "Tale  of  the  Prioress,"  and  the  "Tale 
of  Constance,"  told  by  the  Man  of  Law.  In  writing 
these  stories  the  poet  drew  heavily  upon  the  Bible. 
Others,  like  the  "Nonne  Prestes  Tale,"  are  almost 
equally  rich  in  Biblical  material.  It  is  in  this  that 
Chaucer  makes  his  striking  adaptation  of  the  Scrip- 
tural words — "Be  sure  your  sin  will  find  you  out." 

"Mordre  wil  out,  that  se  we  day  by  day — 
Though  it  abyde  a  yeer,  or  tuo,  or  thre, 
Mordre  wil  out,  this  my  conclusioun.''^® 

IS  See  "The  Prologue"  for  these  character  sketches. 
1*  "A  Vision  of  Poets." 

15 "A  Ballad,   Teaching  What  is  Gentleness" 
i«  "The  Nonne  Prestes  Tale."    Lines  232,  236,  237. 


MEN  OF  THE  THRESHOLD  m 

It  is  in  this  same  tale,  where  he  is  defending  the 
validity  of  dreams,  that  he  cites  certain  well-known 
cases  in  Scripture. 

"I  pray  you  loketh  wel 
In  the  olde  Testament,  of  Daniel, 
If  he  held  dremes  eny  vanyte." 

The  case  of  Joseph  is  mentioned  to  show  that  dreams 
are  sometimes 

"Warn3mg  of  thinges  that  schul  after  falle." 

The  King  of  Egypt,  Pharaoh,  with 

"His  bakere  and  his  botiler  also"^^ — 

has  a  lesson  to  teach.  One  wonders  if  the  poet's  space 
or  meter  did  not  permit  mention  of  the  dream  of 
Pilate's  wife.  In  some  instances  Chaucer  transcribes 
the  words  of  Scripture  almost  literally. 

"Caste  alle  awey  the  werkes  of  derknesse, 
And  armeth  you  in  armure  of  brightnesse/'^s 

The  Lawyer's  story  of  Constance  is  very  rich  in 
Biblical  reference.  It  is  intended  to  set  forth  the  di- 
vine protection  that  is  thrown  about  innocence,  especi- 
ally in  times  of  adversity.  In  this  story  Chaucer  is 
paraphrasing  those  affirmations  of  Scripture  that  as- 
sure us  that  however  many  may  be  the  troubles  of  the 
righteous,  the  Lord  delivereth  them  out  of  them  all. 

**Who  saved  Daniel  in  thorrible  cave," — 

**Who  kepte  Jonas  in  the  fisches  mawe. 

Till  he  was  spouted  up  at  Ninive?"^® 

i^"The  Nonne  Prestes  Tale."    Lines  307-317- 

18  "Second  Nun's  Tale"    Lines  384,  5-    Cf .  Romans  13 :  12. 

"  "The  Man  of  Lawes  Tale." 


132     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

The  words  of  the  heroine  echo  the  confidence  of  be- 
lievers in  all  ages. 

"He  that  me  kepte  fro  the  false  blame, 
Whil  I  was  on  the  lond  amonges  you, 
He  can  me  kepe  fro  harm  and  eek  fro  schams^ 
In  the  salt  see,  although  I  se  nat  how."2f> 

Chaucer's  description  of  the  Cross  in  the  "Lawyer's 
Tale"  is  one  of  the  most  impressive  pictures  of  litera- 
ture. 

"Victorious  tre,  proteccioun  of  trewe, 
That  oonly  were  worthy  for  to  here 
The  kyng  of  heven,  with  his  wounds  newe, 
The  white  lamb,  that  hurt  was  with  a  spere." 

We  may  conclude  this  brief  examination  of  Chau- 
cer's dependence  upon  the  Bible  with  the  poet's  happy 
benediction : — 

"Now,  goode  God,  if  that  it  be  thy  wille, 
As  saith  my  Lord,  so  make  us  alle  good  men; 
And  bringe  us  to  his  heighe  blisse.    Amen."2i 

Surely  the  poet  Dryden  was  right  when  he  said  of 
Chaucer,  "Here  is  God's  plenty." 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  three  hundred  years 
before  the  Pilgrim's  Progress  was  written  and  five 
hundred  years  before  Sartor  Resartus,  there  lived  a 
man  in  England  who  has  rightly  been  called  the  John 
Bunyan  and  the  Thomas  Carlyle  of  his  age.  This  was 
William  Langland  or  Langley,  the  peasant-poet  of 
Malvern  Hills,  a  contemporary  of  Chaucer,  and  the 
author  of  Piers  Plowman,  one  of  the  greatest  and  yet 
simplest  poems  in  the  English  language.    "Langland," 

20  "The  Man  of  Lawes  Tale." 

21  "The  Nonne  Prestes  Tale."    Lines  623-625. 


MEN  OF  THE  THRESHOLD  1S8 

says  Professor  Lounsbury,  "was  a  Puritan  two  hun- 
dred years  before  Puritanism  existed  under  that 
name."22  "Both  Carlyle  and  Langland,"  writes  Miss 
Scudder,  "were  at  once  conservative  and  radical ;  each, 
longing  for  peace,  became  a  destructive  power;  the 
work  of  each  was  deeply  prophetic,  and  reached  out 
among  forces  and  tendencies  which  the  seers  them- 
selves were  able  only  dimly  to  understand.  They  were 
two  voices  crying  aloud  in  two  desert  centuries,  'Pre- 
pare ye  the  way  of  the  Lord.'  "^^ 

Langland's  work  came  out  of  the  heart  of  the 
church.  The  author  was  a  monk;  yet  he  was 
severely  critical  of  the  church,  at  least  of  the  re- 
ligious abuses  of  the  day.  Like  Carlyle,  he  cried  out 
for  reality,  for  sincerity,  for  truth  "in  the  inward 
parts."  In  his  great  poem  we  catch  for  the  first  time 
the  note  of  social  passion,  which  in  later  centuries 
swells  like  the  tones  of  an  organ  in  volume  and  power. 
The  complaint  of  the  poor  found  no  other  such  voice 
until  Burns  came  and  wrote  "The  Cotter's  Saturday 
Night." 

The  name  "Plowman"  was,  of  course,  a  bid  for 
popular  attention,  and  in  a  century  of  such  unrest — 
it  was  the  century  of  John  Ball  and  Wat  Tyler  and 
the  "Peasants*  Revolt" — ^Langland's  book  became  the 
book  of  the  people.  It  was  the  dawn  of  democracy 
appearing  in  literature.  Of  the  poet  himself  little  is 
known,  except  that  he  was  a  man  of  the  people,  that 
he  was  very  poor,  and  that  "his  world  is  the  world  of 
the  poor."  As  to  his  studies,  there  is  little  to  prove 
his  scholarship.     Nevertheless  he  was  a  shrewd  ob- 

52  Studies  in  Chaucer,  Vol.  II,  p.  468. 

23  Social  Ideals  in  English  Letters,  pp.  25,  26. 


134     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

server,  a  fearless  thinker,  and  a  writer  who  felt  a 
spiritual  burden.  His  poem  is  steeped  in  Scripture, 
and  much  of  its  powerful  effect  is  to  be  explained  by 
its  Biblical  background.  "If  the  quotations  from  the 
Bible  and  the  works  of  the  Fathers  are  not  always  ac- 
curate, the  superabundance  of  them,  and  the  ease 
with  which  they  recur  under  his  pen,  are  proof  suf- 
ficient of  his  having  been  impregnated,  as  it  were,  with 
religious  literature."^*  Ten  Brink  writes  these  en- 
thusiastic words  about  Langland — "One  of  the  great- 
est in  the  majestic  line  of  English  poets,  whose  muse 
was  inspired  by  the  highest  interests  of  man,  those  of 
religion,  he  was  the  worthy  predecessor  of  Milton."^^ 
Piers  Plowman,  like  the  Canterbury  Tales  of  Chau- 
cer, is  the  story  of  a  pilgrimage:  only  the  pilgrimage 
is  to  the  mystic  land  of  Truth. 

"In  a  summer  season 
When  soft  was  the  sun, 
I  put  me  into  clothes, 
As  I  a  shepherd  were; 
In  habit  as  a  hermit, 
Unholy  of  works, 
Went  wide  in  this  world, 
Wonders  to  hear, 
And  on  a  May  morning. 
On  Malvern  hills, 
Me  befell  a  wonder."2« 


The  poet  fell  asleep — 


'TTnder  a  broad  bank, 
By  a  burn's  side,'* 


^*  Piers  Plowman,  Jusserand,  p.  172. 
2"  English  Literature,  Ten  Brink,  Vol.  I,  p.  367. 
28  Opening  lines  of  The  Vision  of  William  concerning  Piers 
the  Plowman. 


MEN  OF  THE  THRESHOLD  185 

and  dreamed  a  "marvelous  dream,"  of  a  tower  on  a 
hill  and  "a  fair  field  of  folk,"  where  were  all  manner 
of  men, 

"The  mean  and  the  rich, 
Working  and  wondering." 

It  IS  a  veritable  Vanity  Fair,  representing  the  world 
at  large  with  its  motley  crowds.  There  are  such 
allegorical  figures  as  Conscience,  Falsehood,  Pity, 
Reason,  Hunger  and  Law,  and  there  is  one  very 
prominent  figure  named  Lady  Meed  or  Bribery,  who 
is  the  incarnation  of  worldiness.  It  is  apparent  that 
the  poet  is  dreaming  about  the  world  as  it  is,  with 
"Lady  Holy  Church" — alas!  that  her  character  falls 
so  far  below  her  name! — and  "the  Seven  Deadly 
Sins."    In  the  midst  of  great  perplexity, 

"A  thousand  of  men  there  thronged  together 
Cried  upward  to  Christ  and  to  His  clean  Mother 
To  have  grace  to  go  with  them  Truth  to  seek." 

Now  "Piers  Plowman"  comes  upon  the  scene.  It  is 
to  be  noted  that  he  came  from  the  fields  where  he  had 
been  working,  just  as  the  world's  Savior  came  to  a 
manger,  and  was  hailed  by  shepherds  from  the  fields. 
Langland  believes  that  glory  is  near  to  dust:  he  does 
not  hesitate  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  Labor.  There  is 
another  allegory,  a  vision  of  Do  Well,  Do  Bet  and  Do 
Best,  and  presently  we  discover  that  "Piers  Plowman" 
is  highly  exalted :  he  has  become  even  in  his  guise  as  a 
plowman  the  true  revealer  of  Love. 

"And  that  knoweth  no  clerke:  no  creature  on  earth 
But  Piers  the  Plowman.    Petrus,  id  est  Cristus." 

It  is  a  remarkable  transformation,  and  one  that  con- 


136     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

veys  a  wonderful  lesson.  In  other  words,  Langland 
makes  it  plain  that  the  Master  Workman  of  all  is 
Christ,  who  is  the  real  Social  Emancipator  and  Guide 
of  men.  He  comes  in  the  guise  of  a  Plowman  in  order 
that  He  may  identify  Himself  with  the  common  life 
and  work  of  men.  There  are  few  nobler  passages  in 
English  poetry  than  that  in  which  Langland  describes 
Jesus  "in  a  poor  man's  apparell.**  How  much  of  the 
Scripture  both  in  spirit  and  word  is  found  in  the 
picture : — 

"For  our  joy  and  our  health,  Jesus  Christ  of  Heaven 

In  a  poor  man's  apparell  pursueth  us  ever, 

And  looketh  upon  us  in  their  likeness  and  that  with  lovely 

cheer 
To  know  us  by  our  kind  heart  and  casting  of  our  eyes, 
Whether  we  love  the  lords  here  before  our  Lord  of  bliss. 
For  all  we  are  Christ's  creatures  and  of  his  coffers  rich 
And  brethren  as  of  one  blood  as  well  beggars  as  earls.'* 

We  see  at  once  what  service  the  peasant  poet  is 
rendering  us  here.  He  is  making  it  plain  that  the 
likeness  of  Christ  may  reappear  even  in  a  plowman, 
in  any  man  who  is  doing  fair  and  honest  work.^^  And 
this  is  the  deep  message  of  Christ's  humanity  always, 
its  identification  with  our  common  humanity,  and  its 
leaving  upon  our  humanity  a  new  mark  of  value. 

"Jesus  Christ  of  Heaven 
In  a  poor  man's  apparell  pursueth  us  ever." 

If  Langland  had  not  written  another  sentence,  this 
alone  would  entitle  him  to  rank  among  the  Christian 
poets,  and  the  sentiment  may  well  be  treasured  in 

^"^The  Servant  in  the  House,  Charles  Rann  Kennedy,  is 
a  recent  and  impressive  adaptation  of  this  idea. 


MEN  OF  THE  THRESHOLD  137 

memory  as  an  expression  of  the  best  and  strongest 
things  that  men  are  trying  to  do  down  to  the  present 
time  in  behalf  of  their  fellow-men. 

Later  the  dreamer  sees  another  vision  as  he  sits  in 
church  during  the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Mysteries. 
He  sees  Piers  the  Plowman  coming  in  with  a  Cross  be- 
fore the  people, 

"painted  all  bloody, 
"And  came  in  with  a  cross  before  the  common  people 
And  light  like  in  all  things  to  the  Lord  Jesus." 

The  climax  is  reached  in  a  description  of  the  death  of 
Christ,  and  of  his  triumph  over  death  and  hell.  "I 
cannot  refrain  from  adding  here  my  conviction,"  says 
Professor  Skeat,  "that  there  are  not  many  passages  in 
English  poetry  which  are  so  sublime  in  their  concep- 
tion as  the  1 8th  Passus.  Some  of  the  lines  are  rudely 
and  quaintly  expressed,  but  there  are  also  many  of 
great  beauty  and  power,  which  buoyantly  express  the 
glorious  triumph  of  Christ."*® 

At  length  the  poet  awakes  with  the  bells  of  Easter 
sounding  out  their  joyous  call. 

"And  men  rang  the  Easter  bells  and  right  with  that  I  waked, 

And  called  Kit  my  wife  and  Kalote  my  daughter, 

'Arise  ye  and  reverence  God's  Resurrection, 

And  creep  to  the  Cross  on  knees  and  kiss  it  for  a  jewel!"* 

The  figure  of  the  triumphant  Christ  which  Langland 
reveals  to  us  is  not  that  of  a  King  in  imperial  splen- 
dor; "but  a  figure  of  the  homely  and  friendly  Christ, 
dwelling  with  humble  men,  helping  them  with  their 
crafts,  teaching  them  to  plough  and  to  ditch,  and  to 

2^  Introduction  to  the  Vision  of  William  Concerning  Piers 
the  Plowman.  XXXV. 


138     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

live  a  leal  life  and  a  true:  a  Divine  Comrade   who 
standeth  at  the  right  hand  of  the  poor.'  "^9 

It  is  just  this  naturalness  of  the  poet,  this  homeli- 
ness of  his  descriptions  even  of  the  subhmest  scenes — 
Lowell  thinks  that  homeliness  is  especially  character- 
istic of  early  English  poetry^^ — that  shows  his  sensi- 
tiveness to  the  influence  of  the  Bible.  More  than  any- 
thing else  Langland  was  a  Biblical  poet. 

There  was  another  great  contemporary  of  Chaucer 
in  the  fourteenth  century — John  Wyclif,  who  stood  on 
the  threshold  of  the  new  era  with  his  rich  offering  of 
an  English  Bible  for  the  English  people! 

29  The  Christ  of  English  Poetry,  C.  W.  Stubbs,  p.  84. 

30  My  Study  Windows,  p.  195. 


XIII 

ENGLISH  VERSIONS  AND  THEIR 
INFLUENCE 

'7  Tvish  they  were  translated  into  all  languages  of 
the  people.  I  wish  that  the  husbandman  might  sing 
parts  of  them  at  his  plough,  and  the  weaver  at  his 
shuttle,  and  that  the  traveler  might  beguile  with  their 
narration  the  weariness  of  his  way" — Erasmus. 

THE  progress  of  English  literature,  like  the 
progress  of  history  itself,  has  never  been  a 
steady,  unceasing  process.  Rather  it  has  been 
by  alternate  movements  and  pauses.  A  discriminating 
critic  living  at  the  date  of  Chaucer's  death  in  1400 
would  certainly  have  been  tempted  to  prophesy  an  im- 
mediate era  of  literary  prosperity,  as  a  result  of  the 
stimulus  given  by  the  author  of  The  Canterbury  Tales. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  period  following  Chaucer  was 
one  of  comparative  barrenness.  New  influences  were 
needed  to  fertilize  the  soil  of  English  thought,  and 
in  this  process  of  further  stimulation  the  Bible  had  no 
inconsiderable  part  to  play. 

The  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  brings  us 
within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  great  Elizabethan  age, 
when  English  literature  blossomed  out  into  almost 
divine  beauty.  But  the  "spacious  days"  of  Elizabeth 
could  not  come  until  certain  events  had  transpired, 

139 


140     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

more  than  one  of  which  are  closely  related  to  the 
Bible.  If  the  fifteenth  century  was  not  productive  of 
literature  in  a  large  way,  it  was  nevertheless  prepara- 
tory for  a  greater  period  that  was  to  follow.  Some 
generations,  like  some  men,  are  called,  not  to  execute, 
but  to  prepare.  Viewed  in  the  light  of  its  stupendous 
events,  the  fifteenth  century  was  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance to  the  progress  of  English  literature. 

The  first  of  these  events  was  the  invention  of 
printing.  Wyclif  might  translate  the  Scripture  into 
the  English  language,  but  his  version  lacked  a  suitable 
instrument  of  wide  popularity — it  was  dependent  upon 
the  pen  of  the  copyist.  When  the  Gutenberg  presses 
were  set  up  an  immediate  emancipation  of  thought 
took  place.  Whether  or  not  it  is  true  that  the  first 
book  printed  at  Mainz  was  the  Latin  Bible  which  came 
to  be  known  later  as  the  Mazarin  Bible,  from  having 
been  found  in  Cardinal  Mazarin's  library  in  Paris — it 
is  certainly  true  that  the  printing-press  was  dedicated 
at  once  to  the  service  of  the  Word  of  God.  When 
English  writers  mention  the  names  of  those  who  laid 
the  foundations  of  England's  greatness,  a  place  of 
honor  should  be  given  always  to  William  Caxton  who 
set  up  the  first  printing-press  in  England  about  1476. 

One  of  the  first  books  printed  in  English  was  the 
Golden  Legend,  containing  considerable  portions  of 
the  Scripture.  'The  printing-press,"  says  Green,  "was 
making  letters  the  common  property  of  all.  In  the 
last  thirty  years  of  the  fifteenth  century  ten  thousand 
editions  of  books  and  pamphlets  are  said  to  have  been 
published  throughout  Europe."^  It  is  difficult  for  us 
1 A  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  Chap.  VI,  Section 
IV. 


ENGLISH  VERSIONS  AND  THEIR  INFLUENCE  141 

at  this  late  day,  accustomed  as  we  are  to  the  abundant 
fruitage  of  the  printing-press,  even  to  imagine  the 
opening  of  doors  that  came  to  pass  through  such  a 
momentous  change.  The  world  became  almost  in  a 
day  a  new  world.  It  was  a  wonderful  hour  in  the 
world's  history,  and  the  beginning  of  a  new  epoch  in 
the  history  of  literature,  when  the  Bible  was  sent 
broadcast  by  means  of  the  printing-press. 

Simultaneous  with  the  invention  of  printing  came 
the  birth  of  an  era  of  New  Learning  in  Europe,  called 
the  Revival  of  Letters  or  the  Renaissance.  It  was 
about  the  middle  of  the  century  that  the  printing-press 
was  set  up  in  Mainz.  Constantinople  fell  before  the 
Turks  in  1453.  The  fall  of  the  city  on  the  Bosphorus 
scattered  many  scholars  who  had  made  it  the  center 
of  their  labors.  They  came  westward,  bringing  with 
them  many  precious  Greek  manuscripts,  including 
manuscripts  of  the  Scripture.  Hence  the  famous  say- 
ing— that  when  Greece  arose  from  the  grave,  she  arose 
with  the  New  Testament  in  her  hand. 

Ere  long  the  new  wave  of  learning  reached  England 
and  overflowed  its  shores.  English  scholars  studied  at 
Padua,  Bologna  or  Florence,  and  returned  to  teach  at 
Oxford  and  Cambridge.  *'Every  breeze  was  dusty 
with  the  golden  pollen  of  Greece,  Rome,  and  of 
Italy."^  Such  illustrious  scholars  as  Erasmus,  John 
Colet,  and  Sir  Thomas  More,  starred  the  history  of 
English  literature  in  this  period.  Erasmus,  who  "laid 
the  egg  that  Luther  hatched,"  published  his  Greek 
Testament  in  15 16,  and  so  great  was  the  excitement 
produced  in  England  and  on  the  continent  by  this 
work,  that  thousands  of  copies  were  circulated.     It 

*  "Essay  on  Spencer,"  J.  R.  Lowell,  in  Among  My  Books. 


142     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

was  the  proud  boast  of  Erasmus  that  he  taught  Utera- 
ture,  which  before  him  was  almost  pagan,  to  speak  of 
Christ  It  may  truly  be  said  that  the  best  English 
literature  has  been  ever  since  speaking  of  Christ ! 

It  is  unnecessary  here  to  do  more  than  mention  a 
third  gteat  event  of  these  intervening  generations — 
the  Protestant  Reformation — which  brought  about  a 
spiritual  revival  even  as  the  Renaissance  had  produced 
a  revival  of  letters. 

These  three  events,  the  Printing-Press,  the  Renais- 
sance, the  Reformation,  were  truly  transforming  in- 
fluences. Falling  as  they  do,  in  the  period  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  between  Chaucer  and  Queen 
Elizabeth,  they  had  a  large  part  to  play  in  preparing 
for  the  great  days  of  the  Tudor  Queen.  There  is, 
however,  another  important  event  that  belongs  for 
the  most  part  in  the  same  period.  This  is  the  prepara- 
tion of  English  versions  of  the  Bible.  For  although 
Wyclif  was  a  contemporary  of  Chaucer,  his  version 
did  not  appear  until  toward  the  close  of  the  fourteenth 
century. 

We  have  seen  how  little  by  little,  in  the  form  of 
paraphrases  and  partial  versions,  the  Bible  had  been 
trying  through  the  centuries  to  break  forth  into  the 
vernacular.  Meantime  it  left  its  mark  everywhere 
upon  what  men  wrote.  But  the  centuries  went  by  in 
England  and  there  was  no  vernacular  version.  It  was 
eight  hundred  years  since  Augustine  and  his  monks 
came  to  England  with  the  Holy  Scripture,  and  the 
priests  of  the  church  were  still  chanting  from  the 
Latin  Bible.  It  was  a  thousand  years  since  Jerome 
made  his  Latin  version,  and  in  all  these  centuries  the 
Vulgate   reigned   supreme.     The   great   number  pf 


ENGLISH  VERSIONS  AND  THEIR  INFLUENCE  148 

copies  still  extant  proves  how  widely  it  was  used. 
Cliarlemagne  scattered  it  all  over  his  realm.  The 
monks  of  the  middle  ages  multiplied  copies  by  hun- 
dreds.^ 

The  long  delay  that  occurred  in  the  coming  of  a 
full  English  version  is  one  of  the  difficult  facts  of  his- 
tory. It  may  be  that  England  was  not  ready  until 
Wyclif  came.  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  there  had 
been  Danish  invasions,  and  there  had  been  a  Norman 
Conquest.  All  through  the  centuries  the  church  held 
tenaciously  to  her  beloved  Latin.*  No  other  single 
book  that  the  world  has  ever  known  has  wielded  so 
great  an  influence  as  the  Latin  Vulgate.  Its  career  in 
England  is  a  romance  of  centuries.' 

The  appearance  of  Wyclif's  English  Bible  was  an 
event  of  nothing  less  than  national  significance.  His 
is  one  of  the  proudest  names  in  English  history.  The 
quiet  pastorate  in  the  village  of  Lutterworth  to  which 
he  was  obliged  to  retire  could  not  contain  him.    The 


8  The  Ancestry  of  Our  English  Bible,  Prof.  Ira  M.  Price, 

p.  174. 

*  See  a  full  discussion  of  this  question  in  H.  W.  Hoare's 
volume,  The  Evolution  of  the  English  Bible,  pp.  9-22. 

•*  "The  Vulgate,  though  a  composite  work,  will  always 
rank  among  the  most  remarkable  books  of  the  world.  .  .  . 
But  the  Vulgate  has  more  in  it  than  its  nobility  as  a  transla- 
tion. It  is  the  venerable  source  from  which  the  Church  has 
drawn  the  largest  part  of  its  ecclesiastical  vocabulary.  Terms 
now  so  familiar  as  to  arouse  no  curiosity  as  to  their  origin, 
'scripture,'  'spirit,'  'penance,'  'sacrament,'  'communion,'  'salva- 
tion,' 'propitiation,'  'elements,'  'grace,'  'glory,'  'conversion,'  'dis- 
cipline,* 'sanctification,*  'congregation,'  'election,'  'eternity,'  'jus- 
tification,* all  come  from  Jerome's  Bible."  The  Evolution  of 
the  English  Bible,  H.  W.  Hoare,  p.  236. 


144     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

English  laureate  Tennyson  sings  in  lines  that  repro- 
duce the  Scripture — 

"Not  least  art  thou  Bethlehem,  thou  little  Bethlehem, 
In  Judah,  for  in  thee  the  Lord  was  born ; 
Nor  thou  in  Britain,  httle  Lutterworth, 
Least,  for  in  thee  the  Word  was  born  again." 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  in  words  the  influence  of 
\  Wyclif 's  version  in  developing  the  thought  and  in- 
1  spiring  the  speech  of  England.  In  giving  to  the  Eng- 
'lish  people  their  first  complete  Bible  in  the  language 
of  every-day  use  he  practically  established  the  English 
language  itself,  and  turned  the  current  of  English 
thought  and  literature  into  Biblical  channels.  To  this 
day  the  echo  of  his  version — its  v^ords  and  phrases 
and  sentences — is  heard  in  the  English-speaking 
world.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  his  English  Bible 
marked  almost  the  birth  of  modern  free  institutions  of 
speech,  custom  and  government.  Wherever  the  Bible 
is  known  in  the  people's  speech,  the  spirit  of  freedom 
begins  to  assert  itself.  It  teaches  men  to  think  in  the 
high  terms  of  destiny.  It  reminds  them  that  they 
have  a  great  work  for  God  and  man  to  do  in  the 
world.  It  magnifies  judgment  and  conscience,  and 
encourages  men  in  the  exercise  of  a  spirit  of  inde- 
pendence, which  finds  its  resting-place  in  God.  Thus 
it  furnishes  constructive  material  for  literature. 

For  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  these  manuscript 
copies  of  Wyclif  and  his  successors  penetrated  the  life 
of  England.  Poor  priests  went  everywhere  reading 
the  Bible  to  the  people  in  their  own  language.  The 
people  thus  became  familiar  with  the  picturesque 
phraseology  of  the  Bible.  Once  this  process  of  infil- 
tration of  the  Bible  into  the  English  mind  was  begun. 


ENGLISH  VERSIONS  AND  THEIR  INFLUENCE  145 

no  one  could  stop  it.  In  these  years  the  Bible  was 
becoming  a  part  of  the  very  bone  and  marrow  of  Eng- 
land, never  to  be  eradicated.  Wyclif  thought  to  render 
England  a  religious  service;  unconsciously  he  also 
rendered  a  great  literary  service.  In  his  English  Bible 
he  forged  a  splendid  instrument  for  literary  use.  All 
future  writers  of  English  literature  must  be  indebted 
to  him.  He  made  the  thought  and  diction  of  the  Bible 
the  common  stock  of  English  thought  and  utterance. 
The  historian  Green  speaks  of  him  as  the  "founder  of 
our  later  English  prose."  Wyclif's  prose  did  for  the 
English  of  his  day  what  Chaucer's  verse  did — "set  the 
stamp  of  literary  genius  upon  a  native  instrument 
hitherto  unstrung  and  uncertain  of  sound."  He  made 
the  Bible  "treasure-trove  for  the  students  of  litera- 
ture."« 

"It  is  difficult  in  our  day  to  imagine  the  impressionl 
such  a  book  must  have  produced  in  an  age  which  had 
scarcely  anything  in  the  way  of  popular  literature,! 
and  which  had  been  accustomed  to  regard  the  Scrip-' 
tures  as  the  special  property  of  the  learned.  It  was 
welcomed  with  an  enthusiasm  which  could  not  be 
restrained,  and  read  with  avidity  both  by  priests  an(y 
laymen.  .  .  .  The  homely  wisdom,  blended  with  eternal 
truth,  which  has  long  since  enriched  our  vernacular 
speech  with  a  multitude  of  proverbs,  could  not  thence- 
forth be  restrained  in  its  circulation  by  mere  pious 
awe  or  time-honored  prejudice."^ 

John  Foxe  tells  us  that  "a  poor  yeoman  has  been 
known  to  give  a  load  of  hay  for  a  few  leaves  of  Paul 

«  Article  on  John  Wyclif  in  Warner's  Library  of  the  World's 
Best  Literature,  Vol.  39. 
^  Studies  in  English  History,  J.  Gardiner,  1-2. 


146     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

or  the  Gospels."  Such  was  the  fever  in  the  blood 
created  by  Wyclif's  version.  It  unlocked  a  treasure- 
house  that  was  hitherto  closely  guarded  from  the  peo- 
ple— at  most  they  had  had  but  flitting  glimpses  of  the 
riches  within.  It  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  highly 
gifted  people — a  people  possessed  of  native  literary 
genius — abundant  material  for  thought  and  expres- 
sion. By  one  act  it  opened  the  door  into  a  new  age  of 
literary  cultivation.  It  could  not  now  be  long  until 
the  slumbering  genius  of  the  people  would  awake  to  a 
new  and  wonderful  life.  We  do  not  wonder  therefore 
that  historians  speak  of  the  age  of  Wyclif  as  the 
beginning  of  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  English  litera- 
ture. 

After  Wyclif  there  is  a  gap  of  nearly  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  in  the  narrative  of  Bible  translation, 
and  then  we  come  to  the  romantic,  yet  also  tragic, 
story  of  the  final  struggle  of  the  English  Bible  to  gain 
a  secure  place  for  itself,  and  of  the  tremendous  weU 
come  which  the  English  people  gave  to  it.  The  name 
of  William  Tyndale  must  always  be  spoken  with 
reverence,  not  only  by  students  of  Church  History, 
but  by  students  of  English  literature  as  well.  He  is 
the  true  father  of  our  English  Bible,  and  likewise  a 
real  founder  of  our  literature.  His  is  one  of  the  most 
glorious  names  in  English  annals.  A  student  in  Ox- 
ford University,  he  was  early  given  to  the  study  of  the 
Scripture.  The  spirit  of  the  martyr  was  in  him  from 
the  beginning,  and  when  an  adherent  of  the  Pope  de- 
clared in  controversy  one  day  that  it  were  better  to  be 
without  God's  laws  than  the  Pope's,  Tyndale's  heart 
was  fired  and  he  replied  in  ever-memorable  words, 
"If  God  spare  my  life,  I  will  cause  a  boy  that  driveth 


ENGLISH  \^RSIONS  AND  THEIR  INFLUENCE  147 

a  plow  shall  know  more  of  the  Scripture  than  thou 
dost." 

Unable  to  carry  on  his  work  of  translation,  he  fled 
to  the  continent,  pursued  always  by  his  enemies.  After 
indescribable  trials  he  succeeded  at  length  in  1526  in 
smuggling  six  thousand  copies  of  his  English  Bible 
into  England.  This  now  was  a  printed  English  Bible, 
the  first  that  England  had  known.  These  Bibles 
stirred  England  as  by  a  revolution.  It  was  made  a 
criminal  offense  to  own  a  copy.  Piles  of  Tyndale's 
Bibles  were  burned  in  bonfires.  The  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don launched  a  fierce  philippic  against  the  new  English 
Bible  at  Paul's  Cross,  and  at  the  end  of  his  sermon 
hurled  a  copy  into  a  fire  that  was  burning  before  him. 

But  nothing  could  stop  it.  One  edition  after  an- 
other was  printed  and  distributed  although  Tyndale 
himself  dared  not  set  foot  in  England.  In  1536  he 
was  betrayed  by  a  false  friend  and  cast  into  prison 
near  Brussels.  There  on  October  6,  1536  he  was 
strangled  and  his  body  was  burned,  the  very  year  that 
Anne  Boleyn  was  beheaded  in  the  Tower  of  London. 
As  he  died  he  uttered  his  prophetic  prayer — "Lord, 
open  the  eyes  of  the  King  of  England."  Such  in  brief 
is  the  story  of  blood  and  martyrdom  connected  with 
the  accomplishment  of  this  important  task. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  ninety-seven  per  cent, 
of  the  words  in  Tyndale's  version  are  Anglo-Saxon,  we 
realize  how  close  this  English  Bible  camo  to  the  life 
and  thought  of  the  people.  "Of  the  translation  itself," 
says  Froude,  "though  since  that  time  it  has  been  many 
times  revised  and  altered,  we  may  say  that  it  is  sub- 
stantially the  Bible  with  which  we  are  all  familiar. 
The  peculiar  genius,  if  such  a  word  may  be  permitted. 


148     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

which  breathes  through  it,  the  mingled  tenderness  and 
majesty,  the  Saxon  simpHcity,  the  preternatural 
grandeur,  unequaled,  unapproached,  in  the  attempted 
improvements  of  modern  scholars,  all  bear  the  impress 
of  the  mind  of  one  man,  William  Tyndale."^ 

Speaking  of  Tyndale's  folios,  Taine  says,  "Hence 
have  sprung  much  of  the  English  language  and  half 
of  the  English  manners.  To  this  day  the  country  is 
Biblical.  It  was  these  big  books  which  had  trans- 
formed Shakespeare's  England."^ 

The  flood-gates  were  open  in  England.  Other 
editions  quickly  followed  Tyndale's  version.  The 
eyes  of  the  King,  too,  were  soon  opened  and  he  gave 
permission  to  print  and  circulate  the  English  Bible. 
Miles  Coverdale  followed  with  his  version,  which  was 
"preeminent  in  the  qualities  of  melody,  distinction 
and  beauty  ;"^°  and  John  Rogers  came  next  with  his 
"Matthew's  Bible."  Rogers  suffered  martyrdom  under 
"Bloody  Mary."  Others  followed  in  the  ensuing 
years,  notably  the  Great  Bible,  with  a  title-page  repre- 

^  History  of  England,  Vol.  3,  p.  84. 

^  English  Literature.    III.    Renaissance. 

10  Those  beautiful  sentences  of  the  Authorized  Version — 
"Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  He  may  be  found,  call  upon  Him 
while  He  is  nigh" — "My  flesh  and  my  heart  faileth,  but  God 
is  the  strength  of  my  heart  and  my  portion  forever  more" — 
are  Coverdale's  translations  that  were  carried  over  into  the 
King  James  Version.  "It  is  to  the  melodiousness  of  his  phras- 
ing, to  his  mastery  over  what  may  be  described  as  the  literary 
semitone,  to  his  innumerable  dexterities  and  felicitous  turns 
of  expression,  that  we  owe  more  probably  than  we  most  of 
us  recognize  of  that  strangely  moving  influence  which  seems 
ever  to  be  welling  up  from  the  perennial  springs  of  the  Eng- 
lish Bible,  and  from  the  Prayer  Book  Version  of  the  Psalms." 
The  Evolution  of  the  English  Bible,  H.  W.  Hoare,  p.  178. 


ENGLISH  VERSIONS  AND  TIIEIR  INFLUENCE  149 

senting  King  Henry  the  Eighth  handing  a  copy  of  the 
Word  to  Cranmer.  It  was  called  the  "Great  Bible" 
because  of  its  size,  being  fifteen  inches  long,  and  nine 
inches  wide.  This  Bible  was  chained  to  the  reading 
desks  in  churches  and  was  publicly  read  to  the  peo- 
ple."" Next  came  the  Genevan  Bible,  which  became 
the  Puritan  Bible,  and  which  wielded  an  immense  in- 
fluence down  to  the  time  of  the  Authorized  Version. 
The  Genevan  was  of  small  size,  convenient  for  use  in 
the  homes.  In  all  probability  it  was  this  Bible  that 
was  used  by  William  Shakespeare.  At  any  rate  it  was 
for  sixty  years  the  household  Bible  of  England  and 
Scotland,  preluding  the  time  of  which  Carlyle  speaks 
»— "In  the  poorest  cottage  in  the  land,  there  is  one 
Book,  wherein  the  spirit  of  man  has  found  light  and 
nourishment,  and  an  interpreting  response  to  what- 
ever is  deepest  in  him." 

The  Genevan  Bible  was  published  in  1560.  It  is 
now  truly  the  Elizabethan  age,  for  the  Tudor  Queen 
has  been  two  years  on  the  throne,  and  the  birth  of 
Shakespeare  is  but  four  years  distant.  Spenser  was  a 
boy  of  eight;  Bacon  was  bom  in  the  following  year. 
On  the  day  of  the  Coronation,  as  the  royal  procession 
was  making  its  way  along  Cheapside,  the  Queen's  car- 
riage was  stopped  and  a  copy  of  the  Holy  Scripture 
was  placed  in  her  hands  by  an  old  man  representing 
Time,  with  Truth  at  his  side  in  the  person  of  a  child.^* 

11  "It  is  from  the  setting  up  of  the  Great  Bible  in  parish 
churches  that  the  ever-widening  influence  of  the  Gospel  teach- 
ing on  English  life  may  be  said  both  officially  and  practically 
to  date."    The  Evolution  of  the  English  Bible,  H.  W.  Hoare, 

p.  197. 

12  See  Hoare,  p.  219.    It  was  a  copy  of  the  "Great  Bible"  that 


150     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

The  Queen  reverently  kissed  the  Book  and  pledged 
herself  to  read  it.  The  incident  symbolizes  the  com- 
plete entrance  of  the  English  Bible  into  English  his- 
tory. 

All  accounts  agree  in  depicting  the  popular  enthusi- 
asm for  the  Bible.  "England  became  the  people  of  a 
book,  and  that  book  was  the  Bible."  The  most  im- 
pressive and  picturesque  account  of  the  period  ever 
written  is  that  of  Green  in  his  famous  eighth  chapter 
on  "Puritan  England."^^  The  moral  change  that 
passed  over  England  in  the  latter  half  of  Elizabeth's 
reign  was  tremendous.  The  Bible  was  as  yet  the  one 
English  book  which  was  familiar  to  every  English- 
man; it  was  read  at  churches  and  read  at  home,  and 
everywhere  its  words,  as  they  fell  on  ears  which  cus- 
tom had  not  deadened,  kindled  a  startling  enthusiasm. 
When  Bishop  Bonner  set  up  the  first  six  Bibles  in  St. 
Paul's  many  persons  came  to  hear  the  public  reading, 
especially  if  a  good  reader  could  be  secured.  There 
was  one  John  Porter  with  a  good  presence  and  a 
strong  voice  who  was  very  popular.  In  addition  to 
this  public  reading  from  the  large  Bibles,  the  small 
Genevan  Bibles  went  into  many  homes.  "The  whole 
prose  literature  of  England,  save  the  forgotten  tracts 
of  Wyclif,  has  grown  up  since  the  translation  of  the 
Scriptures  by  Tyndale  and  Coverdale.  So  far  as  the 
nation  at  large  was  concerned,  no  history,  no  romance, 
hardly  any  poetry,  save  the  little-known  verse  of 
Chaucer,  existed  in  the  English  tongue  when  the  Bible 
was  ordered  to  be  set  up  in  churches.    Sunday  after 

was  presented  to  the  Queen.    See  A  History  of  English  Lifer- 
ature,  Nicoll  and  Seccombe,  Vol.  I,  p.  127. 
18^  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  J.  R.  Green. 


ENGLISH  VERSIONS  AND  THEIR  INFLUENCE  151 

Sunday,  day  after  day,  the  crowds  that  gathered  round 
Bonner's  Bibles  in  the  nave  of  St.  Paul's  or  the  family 
group  that  hung  on  the  words  of  the  Geneva  Bible  in 
the  devotional  exercises  at  home,  were  leavened  with 
a  new  literature.  Legend  and  annal,  war-song  and 
psalm,  state-roll  and  biography,  the  mighty  voices  of 
prophets,  the  parables  of  evangelists,  stories  of  mis- 
sion journeys,  of  perils  by  the  sea  and  among  the 
heathen,  philosophic  arguments,  apocalyptic  visions, 
all  were  flung  broadcast  over  minds  unoccupied  for 
the  most  part  by  any  rival  learning.  ...  As  a  mere 
literary  monument,  the  English  version  of  the  Bible 
remains  the  noblest  example  of  the  English  tongue, 
while  its  perpetual  use  made  it  from  the  instant  of  its 
appearance  the  standard  of  our  language.  .  .  .  The 
mass  of  picturesque  allusion  and  illustration  which  we 
borrow  from  a  thousand  books,  our  fathers  were 
forced  to  borrow  from  one.  .  .  .  When  Spenser  poured 
forth  his  warmest  love-notes  in  the  *Epithalamion*  he 
adopted  the  very  words  of  the  Psalmist,  as  he  bade  the 
gates  open  for  the  entrance  of  his  bride.  When  Crom- 
well saw  the  mists  break  over  the  hills  of  Dunbar,  he 
hailed  the  sunburst  with  the  cry  of  David,  *Let  God 
arise,  and  let  his  enemies  be  scattered.'  *' 

This  picture  of  the  growth  of  popular  education  by 
means  of  the  Bible,  while  it  has  never  been  duplicated 
in  like  measure,  has  nevertheless  been  often  repeated 
in  method  and  result.  In  mission  lands  today  popular 
education  is  being  constantly  fostered  by  the  Word  of 
God.  Future  generations  in  these  lands  may  look 
back  to  the  rise  of  literature  in  the  Bible,  even  as  we 
look  back  to  the  days  in  England  when  the  versions 
awakened  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  set  their  genius 


152     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

to  work  upon  new  and  wonderful  material.  It  is  safe 
to  say  that  the  new  eras  of  literature  could  never  have 
dawned  in  England  without  the  English  Bible. 
Shakespeare  himself  grew  up  in  this  Bible-saturated 
atmosphere,  and  when  he  began  to  write  England  was 
already  like  "a  nest  of  singing  birds/'  the  heart  of  the 
nation  having  been  stirred  to  poetry  and  romance  by 
the  music  of  the  Word  of  God. 

It  is  needless  here  to  recite  the  history  of  the  version 
which  in  1611  took  the  place  of  the  Great  Bible,  the 
Genevan  Bible,  and  the  Bishops*  Bible — the  one  known 
as  the  Authorized  or  King  James  Version.  King 
James  was  a  not  over  wise  monarch,  and  he  was  weak 
and  vacillating  besides.  Nevertheless  a  historian  de- 
clares of  him  that  he  was  the  "wisest  fool  in  Christen- 
dom." 

Many  causes  cooperated  to  produce  the  brilliancy 
of  the  Elizabethan  age.  "The  translation  of  the 
Bible,"  says  Hazlitt,  "was  the  chief  engine  in  the  great 
work.  It  revealed  the  visions  of  the  prophets,  and 
conveyed  the  lessons  of  inspired  teachers  to  the  mean- 
est of  the  people.  It  gave  them  a  common  interest  in 
a  common  cause.  Their  hearts  burnt  within  them  as 
they  read.  It  gave  a  mind  to  the  people,  by  giving 
them  common  subjects  of  thought  and  feeling."^* 

The  King  James  Version  has  its  defects,  but  it  is  a 
work  of  singular,  almost  inexplicable  power.  Its  Eng- 
lish is  as  a  rule  marked  by  rare  beauty  and  simplicity. 
"It  lives  on  the  ear,"  said  the  Catholic  Faber,  "like  a 
music  that  can  never  be  forgotten,  like  the  sound  of 
church  bells.  ...  Its  felicities  seem  to  be  almost  things 

"^^  Lectures  on   the  Literature   of  the   Age  of  Elisabeth, 
W.  Hazlitt.    Lecture  L 


ENGLISH  VERSIONS  AND  THEIR  INFLUENCE  15S 

instead  of  words."  It  is  truly  a  part  of  the  national 
mind,  the  very  warp  and  woof  of  English  thinking. 
*lts  noble  figures,  happy  turns,  and  pithy  sentiments 
are  upon  every  lip.  It  pervades  the  whole  literature  of 
our  country."^^  Writers  vie  with  one  another  in  testi- 
fying to  the  unique  supremacy  and  remarkable  in- 
fluence of  the  King  James  Version  of  Holy  Scripture. 
A  professor  of  the  English  language  and  literature 
in  Yale  University^^  speaks  of  it  as  "the  first  English 
classic,  as  seems  by  all  competent  authorities  to  be 
allowed."  **No  other  book,"  he  adds,  "has  so  pene- 
trated and  permeated  the  hearts  and  speech  of  the 
English  race  as  has  the  Bible."  The  effects  wrought 
by  it,  he  tells  us,  were  obtained  by  comparatively  few 
words.  While  Shakespeare  uses  21,000  words,  and 
Milton  about  13,000,  it  is  estimated  that  the  Bible  em- 
ploys only  about  6,000  words.  English  literature,  he 
affirms,  is  deeply  impregnated  with  Scriptural  themes. 
Quotations,  and  allusions  abound  in  great  numbers,  and 
"many  phrases  have  grown  so  common  that  they  have 
become  part  of  the  web  of  current  English  speech, 
and  are  hardly  thought  of  as  Biblical  at  all." 

^^  A  History  of  English  Literature,  NicoU  and  Seccombe, 
Vol.  I,  p.  130. 

i«Prof.  Albert  S.  Cook.  The  references  are  from  his  vol- 
ume entitled  The  Authorized  Version  of  the  Bible  and  its 
Influence.  Prof.  Cook  gives  an  interesting,  although  very 
meagre  list  of  Biblical  phrases  that  have  become  current,  such 
as  "highways  and  hedges,"  "clear  as  crystal,"  "still  small 
voice,"  "hip  and  thigh,"  "arose  as  one  man,"  "lick  the  dust," 
"a  thorn  in  the  flesh,"  "broken  reed,"  "root  of  all  evil,"  "the 
nether  millstone,"  "sweat  of  his  brow,"  "heap  coals  of  fire," 
"a  law  unto  themselves,"  "the  fat  of  the  land,"  "dark  say- 
ings," "a  soft  answer,"  "a  word  in  season,"  "moth  and  rust," 
"weighed  in  the  balance  and  found  wanting." 


154     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Froude  speaks  of  its  "mingled  tenderness,  and 
majesty,  the  Saxon  simplicity,  the  preternatural 
grandeur."  Wordsworth  wrote  of  "the  grand  store- 
houses of  enthusiastic  and  meditative  imagination"  in 
the  prophetic  and  lyrical  parts  of  Holy  Scripture. 
Coleridge  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  "intense  study  of 
the  Bible  will  keep  any  writer  from  being  vulgar  in 
point  of  style." 

By  far  the  most  remarkable  tribute  ever  paid  to 
the  English  Bible  is  that  of  Thomas  Huxley — "Con- 
sider this  great  historical  fact,  that,  for  three  cen- 
turies, this  book  has  been  woven  into  all  that  is  noblest 
and  best  in  English  history;  consider  that  it  has  be- 
come the  national  epic  of  Great  Britain,  and  that  it  is 
as  familiar  to  noble  and  simple,  from  John  O'Groat's 
to  Land's  End,  as  Tasso  and  Dante  once  were  to  the 
Italians;  consider  that  it  is  written  in  the  noblest  and 
purest  English,  and  that  it  abounds  in  exquisite 
beauties  of  literary  form;  ^nd,  finally,  consider  that 
it  forbids  the  veriest  hind,  who  never  left  his  native 
village,  to  be  ignorant  of  the  existence  of  other  coun- 
tries and  other  civilizations,  and  of  a  great  past 
stretching  back  to  the  furthest  limits  of  the  oldest 
nations  in  the  world." 


XIV 

SHAKESPEARE  AND  THE  BIBLE 

"Shakespeare  leans  upon  the  Bible." 

Emerson. 

IN  the  previous  chapter  on  the  English  Versions  we 
endeavored  to  set  forth  in  outUne  at  least  the 
great  change  which  came  over  English  society 
as  a  prelude  to  the  Elizabethan  age.  An  age  such  as 
this  could  not  come  like  a  mushroom  overnight.  We 
have  not  hesitated  to  affirm  that  the  influence  of  the 
Bible  in  English  dress  was  very  great  in  preparing  for 
the  spacious  days  that  were  to  come.  Queen  Eliza- 
beth ascended  the  throne  in  1558.  William  Shake- 
speare was  born  in  1564.  In  1560,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  Genevan  Version  was  published.  Other  versions 
preceded  it,  and  there  were  still  others  to  follow.  The 
bringing  of  these  dates  together  may  serve  to  indicate 
the  importance  we  attach  to  the  English  Bible. 

Even  in  the  days  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  that  monarch 
had  complained  that  the  new  English  Scripture  was 
''disputed,  rimed,  sung,  and  jangled  in  every  tavern 
and  ale-house."  His  words  were  no  doubt  meant  to 
strike  at  the  tendency  to  vulgarize  Scripture — the 
same  tendency  which  we  have  already  observed  in  the 
case  of  the  Mystery  and  Morality  plays.  Yet  it  was 
just  this  leveling  of  Scripture  to  the  masses  of  the 
people  that  constituted  the  great  strategy  of  the  ver- 

155 


156     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERA.TURE 

sions.  The  translators  deliberately  planned  to  give 
the  Bible  to  the  plow-boy  as  well  as  to  the  noble,  to 
the  peasant  as  well  as  to  the  priest.  In  so  doing  they 
set  free  in  England  influences  that  were  certain  to 
pervade  the  Hfe  of  the  nation.  If  these  influences 
cannot  in  every  case  be  traced  in  literature,  it  is  none 
the  less  certain  that  they  helped  to  produce  an 
atmosphere  that  was  favorable  to  the  making  of  a 
strong  literature. 

The  England  into  which  Shakespeare  was  born  was 
an  England  that  had  welcomed  the  Bible  in  the  ver- 
nacular, and  that  was  becoming  saturated  in  every 
pore  with  Biblical  speech  and  thought.  It  is  scarcely 
possible  to  'exaggerate  the  extent  to  which  the  new 
English  versions  had  permeated  the  life  of  the  country 
by  the  time  Shakespeare  took  up  his  pen.  Lord 
Macaulay,  referring  to  the  statesmen  of  Elizabeth's 
day,  affirms  that  their  eloquence  "was  the  eloquence 
of  men  who  had  lived  with  the  first  translators  of  the 
Bible,  and  with  the  authors  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer."^  When  it  is  remembered  that  the  Eliza- 
bethan age  was  throughout  an  age  of  Bible  transla- 
tion, that  it  was  distinguished  in  a  remarkable  degree 
for  interest  in  the  Scripture  and  enthusiasm  for  it, 
that  in  all  this  time  the  Bible  was  uppermost  in  the 
minds  of  men  as  a  topic  of  conversation  and  discus- 
sion, that  in  fact  it  was  the  one  popular  book  of  the 
day — we  may  realiz,e  a  little  better  what  it  meant  to 
have  lived  with  the  first  translators  and  the  first  read- 
ers of  the  English  Bible. 

For  one  thing  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  any 
author  of  genius,  who  truly  represents  the  national 
1  "Essay  on  Bacon." 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  THE  BIBLE  157 

mind  of  that  day,  as  being  indifferent  to  the  Bible. 
On  the  contrary,  we  should  expect  that  the  pervasive 
influence  of  the  Scripture  would  leave  a  deep  mark 
upon  all  the  truly  constructive  literature  of  the  time. 
Genius  is  of  all  things  human  the  most  sensitive. 
Whether  consciously  or  otherwise,  it  is  bound  to  re- 
flect the  prevailing  mood  of  the  day.  An  author  may 
not  be  in  full  accord  with  the  moral  and  spiritual  at- 
titude of  his  generation  —  nevertheless  he  cannot 
wholly  dive^  himself  of  the  atmosphere  in  which  he 
lives  and  writes.  If  our  powers  of  perception  were 
but  delicate  enough  it  would  be  possible  to  trace  the 
history  of  any  period  in  its  literature. 

It  is  in  Edmund  Spenser  that  we  realize  the  dawn 
of  a  new  glory  in  literature.  His  Shepherd's  Calen- 
dar, and  Faerie  Queen  advise  us  at  once  that  a  new 
birth  of  the  imagination  has  come.  In  Spenser  one 
does  not  find  the  language  of  Scripture  so  much 
quoted,  although  in  the  ''Epithalamion"  he  uses  the 
very  words  of  the  Psalmist  in  bidding  the  gates  to 
open  for  the  entrance  of  his  bride.  It  is  the  tone  of 
purity  in  Spenser,  it  is  the  deep  moral  earnestness  of 
what  he  writes,  as  well  as  the  spiritual  vision  which 
fills  his  mind — it  is  these  that  reflect  the  idealism  of 
the  Bible.  There  is  ever  in  Spenser,  even  where  his 
imagination  is  weaving  its  spell  over  the  scene,  a  quiet 
touch  of  Puritanism.  It  was,  as  Green  has  said,  the 
sense  of  "moral  sternness  and  elevation  which  Eng- 
land was  drawing  from  the  Reformation  and  the 
Bible."^  Observing  in  Spenser  the  moral  serious- 
ness whence  all  his  conceptions  sprang,  we  are  not 

^A  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  Chapter  VII, 
Section  VII,  "The  Elizabethan  Poets  " 


158     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

surprised  that  the  great  Puritan  poet  of  the  next  gen- 
eration should  have  described  him  as  "a  better  teacher 
than  Scotus  or  Aquinas."  We  cannot  doubt  that  he 
had  read  and  profoundly  meditated  upon  the  Bible. 

When  we  come  to  consider  Shakespeare's  relation 
to  the  Bible,  the  evidence  is  very  pronounced.  Not 
merely  is  it  the  spirit  of  the  Scripture  that  haunts  his 
mind,  but  it  is  the  very  wording  of  Scripture  as  well. 
If  only  we  could  know  the  story  of  his  early  life,  and 
his  home  environment!  Imagination  is  tempted  to 
reconstruct  it.  One  sees  a  home  where  the  small 
household  Bible,  the  Genevan  version,  had  found  a 
welcome.  The  discipline  of  such  a  home  perhaps  re- 
quired attention  to  the  Book,  but  we  should  suppose 
that  such  discipline  would  not  be  necessary.  It  was 
practically  a  new  book,  and  the  curiosity  of  active 
minds,  unaccustomed  to  such  rich  and  varied  material, 
would  be  motive  enough  to  inspire  interest.  The  alert 
mind  of  a  growing  boy  in  such  a  home,  already,  as  we 
suppose,  alive  with  interest  in  the  dramatic  presenta- 
tions of  Scripture  at  Coventr3r^  would  require  no  whip 
to  create  interest  in  such  a  book  as  the  Bible.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  contemplate  the  opportunities  afforded 
him  to  acquaint  himself  with  the  Scripture.  The  home 
and  the  school  may  be  thought  of  as  cooperating  in 
this.  We  may  think  of  him  as  growing  up  in  the 
companionship  of  the  Bible,  becoming  familiar  with 
its  persons,  scenes  and  incidents,  learning  its  language 
and  style,  imbibing  its  spirit  of  dramatic  life  and 
action,  and  most  of  all,  drinking  in  its  air  of  largeness, 
of  inspiration,  of  creativeness,  and  of  imaginative 
power. 

If  we  have  witnessed  in  our  own  day  the  making 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  THE  BIBLE  159 

of  young  minds  through  contact  with  the  creative 
quaUties  of  the  Bible,  why  may  we  not  justly  conceive 
it  to  have  been  so  with  so  keen  a  mind  as  that  of  the 
boy  of  Stratf ord-on-Avon  ?  In  fact  an  additional  rea- 
son is  found  for  such  a  supposition  in  the  novelty  of 
the  Book  in  its  English  form.  To  be  sure  the  church 
for  generations  had  brought  the  Scripture  to  the  at- 
tention of  the  people — but  with  what  a  handicap  of 
language  and^of  other  interrupting  agencies.  Here  at 
length  was  a  whole  Bible  in  the  hands  of  the  people! 
It  is  for  us  quite  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  boy 
Shakespeare  who  would  not  pore  over  its  pages,  and 
drink  copiously  of  its  inspiration.  For  him  there  was 
no  humdrum,  no  weariness,  no  penalty,  in  such  an 
occupation.  His  contact  with  the  Bible  must  rather 
have  been  marked  by  eager  and  spirited  imagination, 
and  by  those  awakened  and  constructive  powers  which 
lie  at  the  command  of  genius. 

However  imaginative  this  reconstruction  of  the 
poet's  early  environment  may  be,  some  such  sup- 
position is  necessary  to  meet  the  situation  as  we  find 
it  in  Shakespeare's  own  pages.  For  when  we  come  to 
examine  his  writings,  we  find  abundant  evidence  on 
every  hand  of  his  familiarity  with  the  Bible.  We  find 
that  his  knowledge  is  not  casual  and  accidental,  like 
that  of  one  who  has  touched  it  lightly,  and  with  in- 
difference. Rather  we  are  compelled  to  believe  that  ^ 
his  acquaintance  with  Scripture  was  that  of  easy 
familiarity  and  of  sympathetic  interest.  The  thoughts 
of  Scripture  appear  to  be  running  through  his  mind, 
and  the  very  language  of  the  Book  comes  readily  to 
his  pen.  Observing  with  what  ease  and  aptness  he 
makes  use  of  the  Bible,  one  cannot  resist  the  impres- 


160     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

sion  that  he  had  read  the  Good  Book  with  an  open 
mind,  and  had  fully  appreciated  the  value  of  its  liter- 
ary material. 

Its  incidents,  persons,  scenes,  and  idioms  had  lodged 
themselves  in  his  memory.  When  he  refers  to  the 
Bible,  it  is  done  naturally  and  without  effort — he  does 
not  strain  his  point,  he  does  not  drag  his  references 
in  by  force.  We  mean,  in  other  words,  that  Shake- 
speare seems  to  be  at  home  in  the  Bible,  like  one  in 
modern  days,  who,  having  read  the  Bible  from  child- 
hood, thinks  naturally  in  terms  of  the  Bible,  and 
speaks  and  writes  with  recurrent  Biblical  tropes  and 
illustrations.     When  Hamlet  says, 

f 

'}  "There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 

'!  Rough-hew  them  how  we  will" — 

***** 
"There  is  special  providence  in  the  fall  of  a  sparrow," 

we  see  that  the  author  has  easy  and  friendly  coni 
versance  with  the  Bible.  Its  language  comes  readil} 
to  the  tip  of  his  pen.  These  are  not  labored  quota- 
tions, but  easy  and  felicitous  examples  of  how  the 
thought  of  Scripture  affects  the  imagination  of  men 
when  they  speak  and  write. 

From  the  abundance  of  Shakespeare's  references  to 
the  Bible  there  is  warrant  for  saying  that  his  mind  was 

i  fairly  saturated  with  the  Scripture.  Whether  he  was 
in  the  full  sense  a  Christian  believer,  cannot  be  de- 
cided from  what  he  has  written.     His  constant  use 

'of  the  Bible  to  enforce  and  illustrate  his  thoughts 
argues  that  he  believed  at  least  In  its  literary  power. 
We  cannot  resist  the  conclusion  that  he  went  much 
farther  and  accepted  its  authority  for  human  con- 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  THE  BIBLE  161 

duct.  There  is  often  an  air  of  finality  in  the  way  he 
uses  the  Bible,  as  in  Macbeth — 

"In  the  great  hand  of  God  I  stand;" 
and  in  The  Merchant  of  Venice, 

"My  deeds  upon  my  head;'* 
and  in  Richard  II, 

**Water  cannot  wash  away  your  sin." 

This  power  of  prerogative  in  Scripture  is  a  familiar 
sign  of  its  influence  in  literature.  There  is  nothing 
so  suitable  for  the  conclusion  of  a  matter  as  a  good 
strong  word  of  the  Bible.' 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable,  'vith  the  generations  of 
study  that  have  been  given  to  the  bard  of  Avon,  that 
fuller  recognition  has  not  been  taken  of  his  indebted- 
ness to  the  Scripture.  It  is  true  that  Bishop  Words- 
worth* and  many  others  have  dealt  generously  with 
the  subject ;  yet  with  those  who  treat  the  poet  from  a 
literary  standpoint  it  is  quite  too  common  to  ignore 
the  connection  of  the  Bible  with  his  literary  excellence. 
They  can  readily  detect  his  dependence  upon  historical 
sources,  and  they  are  quick  to  observe  traces  of  the 
influence  of  other  writers  in  the  excellence  of  his 
speech,  but  they  are  slow  to  take  note  of  the  way  in 
which  the  Bible  has  poured  out  of  its  rich  store  upon 

'  An  Old  Light  minister  in  Scotland  once  said  to  Dr.  Wm. 
M.  Taylor:  "There  is  nothing  like  a  good  hard  Psalm."  No 
doubt  he  was  thinking  of  the  sense  of  finality  in  Scripture,  of 
which  writers  often  avail  themselves. 

*  The  full  title  of  Bishop  Wordsworth's  volume  is,  On 
Shakespeare's  Knowledge  and  Use  of  the  Bible. 


162     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

his  pages.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  critics  in 
this  summary  fashion  to  ignore  the  influence  of  the 
Bible  on  Hterature.  Thus  Lowell  says  of  Chaucer^ 
that,  "there  are  four  principal  sources  from  which 
Chaucer  may  be  presumed  to  have  drawn  for  poetical 
suggestion — the  Latins,  the  Troubadours,  the  Trou- 
veres,  and  the  Italians."  It  is  strange  that  so  dis- 
criminating a  critic  as  Lowell  should  not  have  been 
willing  to  say  that  Chaucer  also  drank  deeply  from  the 
well  of  Scripture. 

In  the  case  of  Shakespeare  the  dependence  is  so 
obvious  as  to  have  obtained  from  Emerson  the  verdict, 
"Shakespeare  leans  upon  the  Bible."  His  mind  is 
saturated  with  Scripture.  He  thinks  naturally  in  the 
terms  of  Scripture.  These  are  the  marks  of  one 
who  has  read  and  absorbed  the  Bible.  Indeed  so  close 
is  the  resemblance  of  Shakespeare  to  the  Bible  in 
quality  and  tone  that  memory  sometimes  stumbles  and 
we  ask,  "Is  this  from  the  one  or  the  other?"  To  take 
the  Bible  out  of  Shakespeare  would  leave  not  merely 
a  great  gap — it  would  leave  a  deep  wound  in  the  side. 
The  Bible  is  woven  in  with  the  very  texture  of  the 
immortal  plays.  If  the  Bible  were  lost,  much  of  its 
language  and  incident,  together  with  much  of  its  spirit, 
would  be  preserved  to  us  in  Shakespeare. 

His  most  obvious  use  of  Scripture  is  that  of  allu- 
sion and  reference — this  by  way  of  simple  illustration, 
comparison,  or  enforcement.  It  is  in  this  manner  that 
persons  whose  minds  are  richly  fed  with  Biblical  ma- 
terial make  use  of  it  to  illuminate  their  conversation. 
It  is  so  much  a  part  of  their  normal  thought  and  ex- 
perience that  almost  without  realizing  it  they  utter 

'^  My  Study  Windows. 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  THE  BIBLE  163 

themselves  in  Biblical  language.  "The  words  that  I 
have  spoken  unto  you  are  spirit,  and  are  life" — this 
statement  of  Jesus  finds  a  practical  illustration  in  the 
case  of  every  one  who  voices  his  thoughts  naturally 
and  sincerely  in  the  language  of  Scripture. 

How  easily  ^Shakespeare  does  this  might  be  proved 
by  many  examples.  "Slanderous  as  Satan,"  "Poor  as 
Job,"  "As  wicked  as  his  wife,"  "Goliath  with  a  weav- 
er's beam,"  "A  kissing  traitor,"  "Another  Golgotha," 
"We  are  sinners  all,"  "Rude  am  I  in  speech,"  "Dives 
that  lived  in  purple,"  "As  ragged  as  Lazarus,"  "The 
penalty  of  Adam,"  "Life  is  a  shuttle,"  "The  house 
with  the  narrow  gate,"  "Jacob's  staff,"  "False  as 
water" — ^brief  as  these  allusions  are,  they  are  not 
merely  casual.  They  indicate  a  mind  that  had  learned 
to  lean  in  its  thinking  upon  forms  and  rubrics  of  the 
Scripture.  Here  in  the  simplest  and  most  rudimentary 
way  we  observe  the  entrance  of  the  Bible  into  litera- 
ture. The  significant  thing  is  that  the  Bible  is  such  a 
vital  book  that  when  men  are  thinking  earnestly  and 
clearly  they  are  apt  to  claim  its  aid  in  expressing  them- 
selves. 

There  is  another  large  class  of  passages  in  which 
the  poet  does  more  than  merely  allude  or  refer  to 
Scripture — he  weaves  it  into  his  own  narrative  and 
adapts  it  to  his  needs.  Thus  in  The  Merchant  of 
Venice — 

**A  Daniel  come  to  judgment !    Yea,  a  Daniel. 
O  wise  young  Judge,  how  I  do  honor  thee  " 

Speaking  of  the  Duke  of  Gloster's  death,  in  King 
Richard  II,  the  poet  makes  apt  use  of  the  story  of 
Cain  and  Abel — 


164     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

"Which  blood,  like  sacrificing  Abel's,  cries 
Even  from  the  tongueless  caverns  of  the  earth 
To  me  for  justice,  and  rough  chastisement." 

When  the  King  says  in  Hamlet, 

"O,  my  offense  is  rank,  it  smells  to  heaven. 
It  hath  the  primal  eldest  curse  upon  it — 
A  brother's  murder" — 

not  only  is  the  entire  Old  Testament  story  brought  t6 
mind,  but  an  application  is  also  made.  Falstaff  apolo- 
gizes to  Prince  Henry  for  his  delinquencies — 

"Dost  thou  hear,  Hal  ?    Thou  knowest  in  the  state  of  innocency 

Adam  fell. 
And   what    should   poor  Jack  Falstaff    do    in   the    days    of 

villainy?" 

In  As  You  Like  It  we  find  a  happy  coupUng  of  allu- 
sions and  a  spiritual  application  as  w^ell — 

"He  that  doth  the  ravens  feed, 
Yea,  providently  caters  for  the  sparrow, 
Be  comfort  to  my  age." 

What  could  be  more  apt  and  convincing  than  King 
Richard's  taunt  to  the  enemies  who  are  pressing 
him? — 

"The*  some  of  you  with  Pilate  wash  your  hands. 
Showing  an  outward  pity;  yet  you  Pilates 
Have  here  delivered  me  to  my  sour  cross, 
And  water  cannot  wash  away  your  sin." 

This  is  more  than  mere  allusion,  it  is  embryo  sermon. 

Like  many  authors  Shakespeare  had  his  favorite 

BibUcal    illustrations.      Thus    the    story    of    Judas' 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  THE  BIBLE  165 

treachery  appealed  to  him,  and  he  made  frequent  use 
of  it  in  different  plays — 

"Who  can  call  him  his  friend  that  dips  in  the  same  dish?" 

— Timon  of  Athens. 

"So  Judas  kiss'd  his  master,  and  cried 
All  hail !  when  as  he  meant  all  harm." 

— ///  Henry  VI. 

**His  kisses  are  Judas's  own  children." 

—As  You  Like  It, 

•'Be  yrok'd  with  his  that  did  betray  the  Best." 

^Winter^s  Tale, 

Three  Judases,  each  one  thrice  worse  than  Judas." 

—Richard  II. 

"I  kissed  thee,  ere  I  kill'd  thee." 

—Othello. 

Beside  such  instances  of  the  concise  use  of  Scrip- 
ture, there  are  other  instances  where  the  poet  has  not 
hesitated  to  make  very  extended  use  of  Biblical 
material.  An  excellent  example  of  this  is  in  the 
famous  conversation  between  Shylock  and  Antonio,® 
where  the  Jew  avails  himself  of  Jacob's  usury  in  de- 
fense of  himself — 

**When  Jacob  grazed  his  uncle  Laban's  sheep." 

The  discussion  lengthens  to  nearly  a  score  of  lines,  in 
which  the  story  of  Jacob's  device  with  the  flock  is 
brought  out.    Says  Shylock  apologetically, 

"This  was  a  way  to  thrive,  and  he  was  blest." 

It  is  in  this  connection  that  the  poet  puts  into  the 
mouth  of  Antonio  a  reference  to  the  Savior's  tempta- 

•  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  I,  Sc.  3. 


166     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

tion,  that  shows  the  range  of  his  acquaintance  with  the 
Bible,  and  his  quickness  in  Unking  parts  together — 

"Mark  you  this,  Bassanio, 
The  Devil  can  cite  Scripture  for  his  purpose." 

Another  instance  of  the  extended  use  of  Scripture  is 
that  of  Jephthah's  daughter  in  Hamlet.  Hamlet  ad- 
dresses Polonius  as  Jephthah — 


Q 


Hamlet.    "O  Jephthah,  judge  of  Israel,  what  a  treasure  hadsf' 
thou!" 
Polonius.    "What  a  treasure  had  he,  my  lord?" 
Hamlet.    "Why, 

'One  fair  daughter,  and  no  more, 
The  which  he  loved  passing  well* " 
Polonius  (aside).    "Still  on  my  daughter." 
L      Hamlet.    "Am  I  not  i'  the  right,  old  Jephthah?" 

It  is  not  necessary  for  the  poet  to  do  more  than  sug- 
gest the  story.  The  application  is  apparent  in  the 
mind  of  Hamlet. 

Shakespeare  also  makes  very  frequent  use  of  the 
historical  facts  of  the  Bible.  A  fair  outline  of  Old 
Testament  history  is  contained  in  his  writings.  The 
creation,  the  temptation,  the  fall,  the  story  of  Cain 
and  Abel,  the  flood,  the  patriarchal  histories.  Job, 
Pharaoh,  Samson,  David,  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  many 
other  familiar  names  of  Scripture  figure  in  his  pages. 
From  Adam  to  Jesus  and  His  apostles  scarcely  an  im- 
portant character  is  omitted,  while  many  of  the  princi- 
pal incidents  of  Scriptural  history  are  employed. 
There  are,  for  example,  as  many  as  eight  different 
instances  where  Shakespeare  makes  use  of  the  story 
of  Cain  and  Abel.^  The  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son 
is    used   in    five   plays.      Analogies   between    Shake- 

T  The  Bible  in  Shakespeare,  William  Burgess,  p.  87. 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  THE  BIBLE  167 

speare*s  plots  and  the  stories  of  the  Bible  have  often 
been  noted.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  these 
resemblances  is  that  of  Macbeth  to  the  story  of  Ahab 
and  Jezebel. 

We  should  i^aturally  expect  that  the  poet  would 
make  frequent  references  to  the  story  of  redemption. 
Such  indeed  is  the  case.  These  references  are  often 
to  the  bare  history,  as  in  this — 

"So  Judas  did  to  Christ" 

But  more  often  his  use  of  the  facts  of  redemption  in- 
volves doctrinal  ideas,  as  in  the  beautiful  picture  of 
Christ  in  Palestine — 

"In  those  holy  fields, 
Over  whose  acres  walk'd  those  blessed  feet. 
Which  fourteen  hundred  years  ago  were  nail'd 
For  our  advantage,  on  the  bitter  cross."^ 

Few  passages  m  English  literature  can  be  named  in 
which  so  much  of  the  vital  truth  of  Christianity  is 
comprised  as  in  this  passage.  Here,  beside  stating  in 
a  few  words  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  the  poet 
succeeds  in  fixing  our  thought  first  upon  the  person- 
ality of  the  Redeemer,  next  upon  the  environment  in 
which  He  lived,  and  finally  upon  the  sorrow  of  His 
Gross!  We  cannot  help  feeling  that  Shakespeare's 
references  to  the  redemptive  truth  of  the  Gospel  are 
singularly  tender  and  effective.    Thus  he  speaks  of — 

**The  precious  image  of  our  dear  Redeemer." 

And  again  of — 

'•Your  Master, 
Whose  minister  vou  ar*?,  whiles  here  he  lived 
Upon  this  naughty  earth." 
9 1  Henry  IV,  Act.  I,  Sc.  i. 


168     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

And  again — 

"I  charge  you  as  you  hope  to  have  redemption 
By  Christ's  dear  blood,  shed  for  our  grievous  sins." 

Not  even  the  fervency  of  these  utterances  is  sufficient 
to  prove  the  poet's  personal  faith.  Nevertheless  one 
can  have  no  doubt  of  Shakespeare's  perfect  familiarity 
and  sympathy  with  the  Gospel  narratives. 

But  Shakespeare  is  more  profoundly  dependent 
upon  Scripture  than  we  have  yet  indicated.  It  is  not 
merely  in  his  allusions  and  references  that  we  find  the 
deepest  influence  of  the  Bible  in  the  making  of  these 
wonderful  plays.  Rather  it  is  in  the  saturation  of  his 
pages  with  Scriptural  thoughts,  themes  and  ideals,  that 
_we  find  the  strongest  mark  of  Biblical  influence.  We 
have  already  mentioned  his  use  of  the  redemptive  facts 
of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  On  the  general  subject  of 
God's  rule  the  poet  is  very  explicit — he  believes  in 
Providence. 

"There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough-hew  them  how  we  will." 

This  conception  of  an  over-ruling  mind  is  a  controlling 
thought  with  the  poet.  Therefore  he  teaches  retribu- 
tion for  sin,  and  the  need  of  repentance  and  faith. 
Shakespeare  is  dealing  constantly  with  the  age-long 
problem  of  the  contest  between  Good  and  Evil,  and 
it  may  be  said  that  his  handling  of  the  problem  is  in 
general  profoundly  Biblical.  Every  one  of  the  trage- 
dies is  a  brief  for  the  Biblical  doctrines  of  sin,  retri- 
bution and  atonement.  "It  is  in  this  austere  concep- 
tion of  a  moral  equilibrium  disturbed  by  wilful  sin 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  THE  BIBLE  169 

and  foolish  passion  that  Shakespeare's  religious  senti- 
ments most  powerfully  disclose  themselves."* 

"Thus  conscience  doth  make  cowards  of  us  all," 

says  Hamlet,  and  in  this  single  line  the  poet  sets  forth 
the  weakness  of  guilt,  and  the  penalty  of  inward  un- 
worthiness. 

"My  conscience  hath  a  thousand  several  tongues, 
And  every  tongue  brings  in  a  several  tale, 
And  every  tale  condemns  me  for  a  villain." 

The  whole  tragic  history  of  the  seared  and  spoiled 
moral  Hfe  of  man  cries  out  in  these  words  of  Richard 
III.  The  poet  holds  sternly  to  the  Biblical  ideal  of  in- 
evitable justice.     Henry  VI  asks — 

"Can  we  outrun  the  heavens?" 

In  the  world's  uneven  ways,  wrong  may  "shove  by 

justice," 

"but  'tis  not  so  above ; 
There  is  no  shuffling,  there  the  action  lies 
In  his  true  nature,  and  we  ourselves  compell'd. 
Even  to  the  teeth  and  forehead  of  our  faults. 
To  give  in  evidence/'^^o 

Could  there  be  a  more  thorough  statement  of  the 
Scriptural  doctrine  of  judgment?"  Shakespeare  be- 
lieves irretrievably  in  the  "moral  framework"  of  the 

^Atonement  in  Literature  and  Life,  Charles  A.  Dinsmore, 
p.  90. 

^^  Hamlet,  Act  III,  Sc.  3. 

^^  See  The  Great  Poets  and  Their  Theology,  A.  H.  Strong, 
p.  204. 


170     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

world,  and  where  sin  disturbs  the  equilibrium  there 
must  be  repentance  and  expiation.^^ 

"What,  will  these  hands  ne'er  be  clean?" 

cries  Lady  Macbeth. 

"Here's  the  smell  of  the  blood  still:   all  the  perfumes  of 
Arabia  will  not  sweeten  this  Uttle  hand." 

Her  discovery  of  the  need  of  an  expiation  that 
reaches  deeper  than  the  skin — is  it  not  the  ever- 
present  necessity  for  atonement  to  which  the  Bible 
furnishes  in  Christ's  redemption  the  only  adequate 
answer  ? 

Shakespeare's  ethical  use  of  Scripture  is  also  very, 
impressive.    It  is  not  necessary  always  that  he  should 
quote  the  words  of  the  Bible — he  is  constantly  draw- 
ing upon  its  moral  values.    He  is  above  all  else  a  stu- 
dent of  the  soul,  and  in  this  he  welcomes  the  aid  of 
the  Scripture  as  an  authoritative  standard  of  human 
conduct.    We  have  seen  how  strong  a  believer  he  is  in 
the  certainty  of  punishment  for  sin.     Henry  VIII  is 
the  only  one  of  the  great  dramas  in  which  the  sins 
of  the  chief  sinner  do  not  bring  on  a  visible  judg- 
ment.^^  There  are  objectionable  scenes  and  characters 
in  the  plays.    Taine  objects  that  the  poet  should  have 
made  "a  lewd  rascal,  a  pothouse  poet,"  like  Falstaflf, 
one  of  his  prime   favorites.     Nevertheless  the  total 
effect  of  Shakespeare's  painting  of  human  character 
is  toward   moral   elevation.     He  is   on  the   side  of 
morality,  for  he  sees  that  morality  springs  from  the 

"^^  Atonement  in  Literature  and  Life,  Charles  A.  Dinsmore, 
p.  lOI. 
i»  The  Bible  in  Shakespeare,  William  Burgess,  p.  85. 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  THE  BIBLE  171 

heart  of  God,  and  is  deep-seated  in  our  human  frame. 
"The  great  dramatist  was  both  pure  in  his  moral 
teaching  and  singularly  sound  in  faith."^* 

A  single  example  of  the  poet's  high  moral  tone  may- 
be cited.  It  is  all  the  more  remarkable  since  it  is  the 
final  judgment  of  such  an  one  as  Cardinal  Wolsey, 
the  most  subtle  and  talented  of  all  Shakespeare's  of- 
fenders against  right  and  justice,  on  the  subject  of 
human  conduct. 

"Cromwell,  I  charge  thee,  fling  away  ambition; 
By  that  sin  fell  the  angels ;  how  can  man,  then. 
The  image  of  his  Maker,  hope  to  win  by't? 
Love  thyself  last ;  cherish  those  hearts  that  hate  thee : 
Corruption  wins  not  more  than  honesty. 
Still  in  thy  right  hand  carry  gentle  peace. 
To  silence  envious  tongues.    Be  just,  and  fear  not: 
Let  all  the  ends  thou  aim'st  at  be  thy  countrj''s. 
Thy  God's,  and  truth's:  then,  if  thou  fall'st,  O  Cromwell, 
Thou  fall'st  a  blessed  martyr!"" 

Throughout  this  solemn  charge  we  seem  to  hear 
echoes  of  much  that  we  have  learned  in  the  Word  of 
God. 

It  is  the  tone  and  coloring  of  Scripture  which  more 
than  anything  else  produce  in  Shakespeare  his  high 
moral  excellence.  When  Polonius  speaks  a  farewell 
to  his  son,  he  uses,  not  the  language,  but  the  sentiment 
of  Scripture — 

"Give  thy  thoughts  no  tongue. 
Nor  any  unproportion'd  thought  his  act. 
Be  thou  familiar,  but  by  no  means  vulgar. 

♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦ 

^^The  Great  Poets  and  Their   Theology,  A.  H.   Strong, 

p.  210. 

"  Henry  VIII,  Act  III,  Sc.  2. 


^ 


172     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Give  every  man  thy  ear,  but  few  thy  voice: 

Take  each  man's  censure,  but  reserve  thy  judgment. 

♦  *  *  *  * 

This  above  all :  to  thine  ownself  be  true, 
And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man." 

It  is  Stated  by  those  who  have  taken  pains  to  reckon 
up  the  number  that  Shakespeare's  v^ritings  contain 
more  than  tv^elve  hundred  references  to  the  Bible. 
But  this  list,  as  we  have  tried  to  point  out,  does  not 
exhaust  our  subject.  The  poet's  dependence  upon  the 
Holy  Scripture  is  far  deeper  and  wider.  There  is 
much  wealth  of  poetical  thought  and  imagery  which 
he  appears  to  have  borrowed  more  or  less  directly 
from  the  Bible.  And  besides  it  must  be  evident  to  any 
sympathetic  reader  that  his  mind  is  freshened  and 
inspired  constantly  by  the  current  of  Scripture  run- 
ning through  it.  Shakespeare  is  so  deeply  read  in  the 
Bible  as  to  have  absorbed  it  in  his  intellectual  and 
moral  frame.  To  take  out  of  his  plays  their  deep 
Biblical  strain,  their  Scriptural  tone  and  color,  their 
flavor  and  fragrance  of  the  Garden  of  Spices  in  which 
his  feet  had  walked,  would  be  like  expunging  the 
colors  of  the  rainbow,  or  separating  the  fragrance 
and  beauty  of  the  rose. 


XV 

THE  PURITANS 

**It  (Puritanism)  has  left  an  abiding  mark  in  poli- 
tics and  religion,  but  its  great  monuments  are  the 
prose  of  Bunyan  and  the  verse  of  Milton." 

Lowell. 

HISTORY  has  frequently  misrepresented  the 
Puritans;  yet  Lord  Macaulay  declares  that 
they  were  "the  most  remarkable  body  of 
men  perhaps  which  the  world  has  ever  produced;"^ 
while  Douglas  Campbell  affirms  that  Puritanism  is 
"the  greatest  moral  and  political  force  of  modern 
times  ;"2  and  Thomas  Carlyle  believes  that  "at  bottom 
perhaps  no  nobler  Heroism  ever  transacted  itself  on 
this  Earth/'^  The  Puritans  have  been  caricatured 
and  ridiculed,  and  their  very  name  has  been  made  a 
synonym  for  the  reactionary.  The  satirist  and  the 
dramatist  have  busied  themselves  with  their  peculiari- 
ties— in  truth  they  have  proved  an  easy  mark  for 
stage-invective.  "The  ostentatious  simplicity  of  their 
dress,  their  sour  aspect,  their  nasal  twang,  their  stiff 
posture,  their  long  graces,  their  Hebrew  names,  the 

*  "Essay  on  Milton/' 

2  The  Puritan  in  Holland,  England  and  America,  Vol.  I, 
XXIII. 
^Letters  and  Speeches  of  Cromwell.    Introduction. 
173 


174     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Scriptural  phrases  which  they  introduced  on  every  oc- 
casion, their  contempt  of  human  learning,  their  detes- 
tation of  polite  amusements,  were  indeed  game  for 
the  laughers.'*  *'But,"  as  Macaulay  adds,  "it  is  not 
from  the  laughers  alone  that  the  philosophy  of  history 
is  to  be  learnt." 

Whatever  their  faults  and  foibles,  it  is  certain  that 
history  would  have  to  be  re- written,  if  the  Puritans 
were  left  out.  They  lived  in  times  when  forceful  men 
were  needed  for  great  and  important  duties.  If  they 
were  austere,  rugged,  unyielding;  if  their  theology 
was  at  times  extravagant,  even  absurd;  if  their  stan- 
dards of  conduct  were  frequently  so  other-worldly  as 
to  be  outlandish — nevertheless  the  Lord  gave  them  a 
strong  nail  in  His  holy  place.  Their  mission  was  a 
great  one,  and  the  debt  which  men  owe  to  them  is 
scarcely  less  than  world-wide.  We  can  grant  a  few 
eccentricities  to  men  whose  function  it  was  to  secure 
the  religious  and  civil  liberties  of  the  world;  we  can 
afford  to  suffer  some  disappointments  in  men  who 
were  appointed  to  rest  the  destiny  of  the  world's 
democracies  upon  Divine  Sovereignty.* 

"The  slandered  Calvinists  of  Charles'  time, 
Who  fought,  and  won  it.  Freedom's  holy  fight." 

The  passion  for  popular  education,  which  is  found 
today  among  English-speaking  peoples  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlau.rc,  is  an  inheritance  from  the  Puritans. 
Speaking  of  the  New  England  school-house,  which  he 

*  "It  was  to  this  sect,  whose  principles  appear  so  frivolous 
and  habits  so  ridiculous,  that  the  English  owe  the  whole  free- 
dom of  their  constitution."  Hume's  History  of  England, 
Chap.  XI, 


THE  PURITANS  175 

locates  picturesquely  "in  the  midst  of  a  piece  of  woods 
where  four  roads  meet,"  Lowell  declares  that  "this 
little  building,  and  others  like  it,  were  an  original  kind 
of  fortification  invented  by  the  founders  of  New  Eng- 
land, .  .  .  the  great  discovery  of  our  Puritan  fore- 
fathers."'* If  our  literature,  as  Hazlitt  says,  is  Gothic, 
not  uniformly  beautiful,  but  "of  great  weight  in  the 
whole,"®  we  must  account  that  much  of  its  strength  is 
Puritan  in  origin  and  form. 

It  was  the  Puritan's  profound  sense  of  a  Higher 
Power  that  gave  him  preeminence  among  men.  If 
this  produced  on  the  one  side  a  feeling  of  great  self- 
abasement,  on  the  other  side  it  produced  a  strong  sense 
of  personal  assurance  and  courage.  Men  who  believed 
in  every  fibre  of  their  being  that  God  was  with  them 
in  their  battles  for  truth  and  justice  and  freedom  were 
not  apt  to  show  themselves  weaklings  in  any  human 
conflict.  Despite  their  vagaries,  there  were  in  the 
Puritanic  temper  a  certain  height  and  grandeur,  a  cer- 
tain grand  orderliness  and  seriousness,  a  certain  im- 
perative of  moral  and  spiritual  force,  that  are  nothing 
less  than  sublime. 

The  Puritan  was  nourished  on  the  Bible.^  It  was 
his  meat  and  drink,  food  alike  to  his  faith  and  his 
imagination,  unfailing  source  both  of  his  lofty  ideal- 
ism, and  of  his  strenuous  endeavor.     It  was  the  Old 

^  Among  My  Books.  Essay  on  "New  England  Two  Cen- 
turies Ago,"  James  Russell  Lowell. 

^Lectures  on  the  Literature  of  the  Age  of  Elizabeth, 
W.  Hazlitt.     Lect.  I. 

^  "Wherever  we  find  them,  either  in  England  or  America, 
we  find  in  their  possession  the  school-book  and  the  Bible." 
The  Puritan  in  Holland,  England  and  America,  Douglas 
Campbell,  Vol.  I,  p.  458. 


176     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Testament  especially  that  furnished  him  with  images 
and  norms  of  thought.  Its  note  of  struggle  and  re- 
sistance against  the  oppressor,  its  record  of  wilderness 
wandering  and  of  Divine  light  and  guidance,  appealed 
to  him.  The  Old  Testament  was  a  living  book  to  men 
who  looked  forward  to  a  Promised  Land  in  their  own 
day. 

They  thought  in  terms  of  Biblical  trouble  and  Bibli- 
cal victory.  ''The  English  translation  of  the  Bible  had 
to  a  very  great  degree  Judaized,  not  the  English  mind, 
but  the  Puritan  temper.  ...  It  was  convenient  to  see 
Amalek  or  Philistia  in  the  men  who  met  them  in  the 
field,  and  one  unintelligible  horn  or  other  of  the  Beast 
in  their  theological  opponents."®  Cromwell  wrote  to  3 
relative:  *T  live  in  Meshec,  which  they  say  signifies 
Prolonging;  in  Kedar,  which  signifies  blackness;  yet 
the  Lord  forsaketh  me  not.  Though  He  do  prolong, 
yet  He  will,  I  trust,  bring  me  to  His  tabernacle."  This 
is  an  excellent  example  of  how  the  terminology  of  the 
Old  Testament  was  suited  to  the  Puritan  temper. 
When  the  Puritans,  as  Macaulay  tells  us,  "baptized 
their  children  by  the  names,  not  of  Christian  saints, 
but  of  Hebrew  patriarchs  and  warriors,"  they  gave 
such  a  testimony  to  their  high  opinion  of  the  Old 
Testament  as  is  not  to  be  doubted. 

Above  all  else  it  was  the  Psalms  that  appealed  to 
them  and  found  ready  play  in  their  stern  imaginations. 
If  they  failed  to  understand  such  a  text  as,  *T  have 
piped  to  you  and  ye  have  not  danced,"  they  had  no 
difficulty  whatsoever  with  the  words  of  the  Psalmist — 
"Blessed  be  Jehovah  my  rock,  who  teacheth  my  hands 

^  Among   My   Books.     Essay   on   Milton,   James   Russell 
Lowell. 


THE  PURITANS  177 

to  war,  and  my  fingers  to  fight."  "In  the  poetry  of 
Milton,  in  the  mental  history  of  Bunyan,"  writes  Pro- 
thero,  *'the  power  of  the  Psalms  is  strongly  marked. 
Their  influence  is  still  more  clearly  seen  in  the  career 
of  Oliver  Cromwell,  the  foremost  figure  in  the  stirring 
times  of  the  Puritan  revolution,  the  strongest  type  of 
the  stern  religion  which  raised  him  to  the  summit  of 
fame  and  fortune.  The  spirit  that  he  read  into  the 
Psalms  governed  his  actions  at  each  supreme  crisis 
of  his  stormy  life:  the  most  striking  stages  in  his 
career  are  marked  by  quotations  from  the  Psalms:  in 
his  private  letters,  his  public  dispatches,  his  addresses 
to  Parliament,  the  imagery,  metaphors,  and  language 
of  the  Psalms  drop  from  his  lips,  or  from  his  pen,  as 
if  by  constant  meditation  he  had  made  their  phrase- 
ology a  part  of  his  very  life."®  When  the  sun  rose  over 
St.  Abb*s  Head  on  the  morning  of  the  battle  of  Dun- 
bar, Cromwell  cried  out  in  triumph  in  the  words  of 
the  Psalmist — "Let  God  arise,  and  let  His  enemies 
be  scattered." 

It  is  difficult  at  this  distant  day  to  realize  what  a 
change  had  taken  place  in  England  in  respect  to  the 
Bible.  It  was  but  a  short  time  since  the  yeomen  of 
Wyclif's  day  were  willing  to  give  a  load  of  hay  for  a 
few  chapters  of  an  epistle  in  English.  In  the  time  of 
which  we  now  write  England  was  full  of  Bibles.  The 
Puritans  "took  their  Bibles  with  them  to  the  market- 
place and  to  the  workshop,  and  bought  and  sold  with 
its  words  on  their  lips  and  in  their  hearts.  It  was 
their  guide  In  every  part  of  their  life;  and  when  duty 
called  them  to  take  up  arms,  they  charged  the  enemy 
with  the  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon  in  their 

®  The  Psalms  in  Human  Life,  Rowland  E.  Prothero,  p.  250. 


178     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

hands,  and  singing  David's  Psalms."^°  Version  after 
version,  edition  after  edition,  had  appeared,  and  had 
left  a  mark  upon  the  Hfe  of  England.  During  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth  no  fewer  than  one  hundred  and 
thirty  distinct  issues  of  Bibles  and  Testaments  passed 
through  the  press.  About  ninety  of  these  issues  were 
of  the  Genevan  version,  which,  as  we  have  already 
explained,  was  the  household  version,  being  of  small 
size  and  easy  to  handle."  This  was  an  average  of 
three  editions  a  year;  enough  probably  to  supply 
nearly  every  Protestant  family  in  the  realm. 

It  is  apparent  that  we  must  therefore  contemplate  a 
state  of  society  in  Puritan  days  that  was  thoroughly 
permeated  by  the  Scripture.  Yet  the  newness  of  Eng- 
land's ownership  of  the  Bible  was  by  no  means  worn 
away — it  was  still  a  new  Book  to  the  people  of  Eliza-, 
beth's  day  and  beyond.  Indeed  it  must  have  been  to 
the  average  Englishman  of  that  day  the  only  litera- 
ture that  was  freely  accessible  to  him.  If  we  can  con- 
ceive of  a  community  life  that  lived  and  moved  and 
had  its  being  in  the  Bible,  we  shall  not  be  far  wrong  in 
our  estimate  of  the  relation  of  Puritanism  to  the  Word 
of  God.  "They  were  to  do  God's  work ;  to  do  it,  they 
must  know  His  will,  and  that  will  was  laid  down  in 
the  Bible.  Duty  the  object  of  life,  and  the  Bible  its 
rule.  That  was  the  key-note  of  the  Puritanism  which 
was  to  revolutionize  England  and  found  a  New  Eng- 
land across  the  ocean."^^ 

10  Our  Grand  Old  Bible,  William  Muir,  p.  I79- 

^'^  Annals  of  the  English  Bible,  Christopher  Andersen,  Vol. 

II,  pp.  353,  360. 
12  The  Puritan  in  England,  Holland  and  America,  Douglas 

Campbell,  Vol.  II,  pp.  137,  8. 


THE  PURITANS  179 

One  must  try  to  realize  this  situation  as  vividly  as 
possible  in  order  to  understand  how  much  is  implied 
in  Macaulay's  statement  that  the  books  that  have  been 
written  in  the  languages  of  Western  Europe  during 
the  last  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  "are  of  greater 
value  than  all  the  books  which  at  the  beginning  of  that 
period  were  extant  in  the  world."^^  The  historian  is 
not  speaking  of  the  influence  of  the  English  Bible,  but 
it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  period  defined  in  this 
statement  is  just  the  period  in  which  English-speaking 
people  have  been  in  full  possession  of  the  Bible  in 
their  own  tongue.  Puritanism  committed  many  ex- 
travagances ;  it  was  guilty  of  many  faults  of  emphasis. 
Nevertheless  it  succeeded  in  grounding  the  life  of 
England  very  thoroughly  on  the  Bible;  it  produced  a 
fuller  saturation  of  the  English  mind  with  the  Word 
of  God.  The  Puritan  might  make  many  false  applica- 
tions of  the  teaching  of  Scripture ;  his  emphasis  might 
frequently  be  upon  the  wrong  point.  At  the  same  time 
the  power  of  the  Bible  flowed  into  and  through  him 
and  from  him. 

To  conceive  of  the  Puritan  without  his  Bible  would 
be  to  do  violence  both  to  history  and  logic.  To  him 
it  was  writ  large  with  divine  reality  and  power,  with 
prophetic  audacity  and  vision,  with  the  imperative  of 
purpose  and  courage.  Liberty  was  no  ordinary  thing 
with  him — it  sprang  from  the  heart  of  God.  He  was  a 
mystic  in  the  sense  that  he  was  always  face  to  face 
with  the  great  verities  of  Eternity  and  Human  Des- 
tiny :  but  his  mysticism  had  a  practical  everyday  value 
— ^he  faced  the  problems  of  his  day  quite  as  much  as 
the  problems  of  the  spiritual  realm. 
""Essay  on  Lord  Bacon." 


180     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

The  great  days  of  Elizabeth  gave  to  the  world  a 
mighty  tradition  of  faith  and  venture.  For  the  most 
part  this  is  a  Puritan  inheritance,  and  the  world  is 
richer  to  this  hour  for  the  strain  of  heroism  and 
spiritual  adventure  which  came  from  the  Puritan. 
Puritanism  as  an  order  of  society  soon  declined  and 
passed  away.  But  it  had  left  a  deep  deposit  of  influ- 
ence. To  this  day  it  is  felt  in  a  certain  exaltation  and 
grandeur  of  thought,  a  certain  broadening  and  deepen- 
ing of  men's  feelings.  The  hand  of  the  Puritan  is 
still  upon  us  as  we  think  and  write.  His  vagaries  have 
long  since  passed  out  of  sight:  his  power  has  re- 
mained. And  his  power  was  mediated  to  him  through 
the  Bible. 

Strange  to  say,  one  of  the  richest  gifts  of  Puritanism 
to  the  world  of  literature  is  its  gift  of  imagination. 
Lord  Macaulay  is  authority  for  the  statement  that 
"though  there  were  many  clever  men  in  England 
during  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  there 
were  only  two  minds  which  possessed  the  imaginative 
faculty  in  a  very  eminent  degree.  One  of  those  minds 
produced  the  Paradise  Lost,  the  other  The  Pilgrim's 
Progress/'^* 

John  Milton  was  born  five  years  after  the  death  of 
Queen  Elizabeth.  He  was  eight  years  old  when 
Shakespeare  died.  He  inherited  the  best  things  of  the 
Elizabethan  age:  he  was  the  highest  type  of  Puritan- 
ism. He  had  the  Puritan  intensity  and  fervor,  and  a 
very  exalted  sense  of  moral  worth  and  beauty.  "If 
ever  God  instilled  an  intense  love  of  moral  beauty,"  he 

1*  Essay  on  Southey*s  The  Pilgrim's  Progress,  with  a  Life 
of  John  Bunyan. 


THE  PURITANS  18X 

said,  "into  the  mind  of  any  man,  he  has  instilled  it  into 
mine." 

In  Milton  we  see  the  flower  of  Puritanism:  he  had 
much  of  the  austerity,  and  he  had  also  the  vision  and 
the  imagination.  It  has  been  many  times  proved  that 
long  and  deep  conversance  with  the  Bible  ultimately 
brings  forth  fruit  in  the  imagination.  It  was  inevitable 
that  the  deep  impregnation  of  the  English  mind  in  the 
Scripture  that  took  place  in  the  Puritan  regime  would 
result  in  a  new  birth  of  constructive  literature. 
Wordsworth  held  that  even  simple  and  uneducated 
minds,  fed  on  the  English  Bible  as  staple  food,  will 
insensibly  acquire  a  vivid  and  majestic  speech 
peculiarly  fitted  for  the  uses  of  poetry.  In  his  notes 
to  the  Bigelow  Papers  Mr.  Lowell  shows  how  the 
"sinewy  and  expressive  diction"  of  the  Bible  had  be- 
come a  part  of  the  Puritan  fibre.^'' 

The  mark  left  by  Puritanism  upon  the  politics  and 
religion  of  the  world  is  very  strong.  Its  greatest 
monuments,  however,  as  Lowell  tells  us,  are  the  prose 
of  Bunyan  and  the  verse  of  Milton.^^  The  Puritans 
might  offend  by  their  straining  after  Biblical  phrase- 
ology: nevertheless  their  ears  and  hearts  were  open 
to  the  real  sound  of  Scripture.  Unconsciously  they 
were  preparing  in  their  midst  for  the  coming  of  a 
great  imaginative  mind  like  that  of  Milton,  whose 
service  to  literature  should  be  distinctly  a  Biblical 
service.  For  although  Milton  followed  classical 
models,  the  source  of  his  materials  as  of  his  inspira- 
tion was  the  Bible.  The  intense  zeal  for  righteous- 
ly See  this  discussed  more  fully  in  the  present  author's 
volume,  The  Fascination  of  the  Book,  pp.  147,  8. 
i»  Among  My  Books.    "Essay  on  Milton." 


182     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

ness  which  was  characteristic  of  the  Puritans,  and 
which  grew  out  of  their  strong  convictions  about  the 
character  of  God,  and  the  authority  of  Scripture, 
found  in  Mihon  an  uncompromising  advocate. 

Milton's  early  intention  was  to  take  a  romantic  sub- 
ject for  his  major  poem — for  this  he  had  almost 
turned  to  the  story  of  King  Arthur.  But  as  he  grew 
older,  the  claims  of  the  Bible  grew  more  insistent,  and 
he  determined  to  "justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men," 
by  attempting  in  verse  the  tremendous  story  of  man's 
loss  through  sin,  and  his  eternal  gain  through  salva- 
tion. The  result  is  beyond  all  doubt  the  greatest  single 
contribution  of  epic  poetry  that  English  genius  has 
given  to  the  world.  That  the  Bible  should  have  fur- 
nished the  motive  for  such  a  poem  is  significant  of 
its  great  place  in  English  history. 

The  poet  turns  to  the  Bible  in  his  first  words — 

"Of  man's  first  disobedience  and  the  fruit 
Of  that  forbidden  tree,  whose  mortal  taste 
Brought  death  into  the  world  and  all  our  woe. 
With  loss  of  Eden,  till  one  greater  Man 
Restore  us  and  regain  the  blissful  seat. 
Sing  heav'nly  Muse." 

With  what  a  magnificent  sweep  of  imagination  he 
carries  us  in  these  opening  words  of  Paradise  Lost 
from  Genesis  to  Revelation ! 

Matthew  Arnold  selects  Milton  as  the  truest  Eng- 
lish representative  of  what  he  calls  the  "grand  style.'* 
It  is,  he  thinks,  the  influence  of  the  great  classic 
models  that  has  produced  this  style:  the  spirit  of  an- 
tiquity breathes  through  his  lines.  It  is  amazing 
that  critics  will  employ  many  pages  in  analyzing 
the  sources  of  Milton's  majestic  literary  power,  and 


THE  PURITANS  183 

never  think  to  mention  the  fact  that  his  whole  life 
was  spent  in  the  atmosphere  of  a  Book  that  is  not 
only  provocative  of  thought,  but  also  constructive  of 
modes  of  expression.  We  venture  to  suggest  there- 
fore that  Milton's  "grand  style"  was  formed  quite  as 
much  upon  the  model  of  the  Scripture  as  upon  that  of 
classic  writings. 

The  language  and  incident  of  Scripture  of  course 
abound  in  the  Paradise  Lost — 

"Meanwhile 
The  world  should  burn,  and  from  her  ashes  spring 
New  heav'n  and  earth,  wherein  the  just  shall  dwell." 
4t  *  *  ♦  ♦ 

"The  stairs  were  such  as  whereon  Jacob  saw 
Angels  ascending  and  descending,  bands 
Of  guardians  bright." 

Such  apt  references  as  these  are  to  be  found  on  page 
after  page  of  Milton — not  in  the  Paradise  poems  only, 
but  in  others  also.     Thus  in  "Lycidas" — 

"So  Lycidas  sunk  low,  but  mounted  high, 
Through  the  dear  might  of  Him  that  walked  the  waves." 

It  is  not  sufficient  to  say  that  Milton's  music  is  that 
of  the  Italian  Renaissance  and  the  classic  models 
which  it  furnished.  The  deepest  notes  in  his  music 
are  echoes  of  the  Word  of  God.  He  has  caught  in  his 
very  style  the  majesty  of  the  Scripture.  The  solemn 
grandeur  and  dignity  of  the  Bible,  the  profound  sense 
of  things  invisible  and  other-worldly,  have  somehow 
transferred  themselves  to  his  pages.  One  feels  in  his 
language  itself  a  strong  pulse-beat  of  spiritual  power. 
Only  long  meditation  upon  the  thoughts  and  images  of 
the  Scripture  could  have  given  him  this  spiritualizing 
and  transforming  power  of  language.     It  is  the  dis- 


184     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

tinctive  quality  of  those  writers,  whether  they  be  be- 
lievers or  not,  who  have  taken  sacred  fire  from  God's 
altars. 

It  is,  however,  in  the  sweep  and  quality  of  Milton's 
imagination  that  we  recognize  the  wider  influence  of 
the  Bible  upon  him.  A  single  hint  of  the  Bible  about 
the  war  in  heaven^^  is  enough  for  his  creative  genius, 
and  upon  this  he  gathers  the  entire  fabric  of  his 
Paradise  Lost.  It  is  the  Puritan  conception  of  the 
vast  struggle  between  Good  and  Evil,  a  struggle  which 
has  constituted  the  tragedy,  not  alone  of  the  world, 
but  of  the  universe.  Milton  stages  the  contest  as  only 
one  who  had  read  and  profoundly  appreciated  the 
Scripture  could  do.  It  is  the  problem  of  the  stupen- 
dous spiritual  catastrophe  that  has  overtaken  humanity 
that  occupies  his  mind — 

•*What  cause 
Moved  our  grand  Parents  in  that  happy  state, 
Favor'd  of  heaven  so  highly,  to  fall  oflF 
From  their  Creator,  and  trangress  his  will/'^^ 

Milton's  answer  carries  us  in  imagination  back  to  an 
undated  period,  before  "the  mother  of  mankind"  was 
deceived  in  the  garden,  when  He  who  became  her 
Tempter  himself  yielded  to  temptation — 

"and  with  ambitious  aim 
Against  the  throne  and  monarchy  of  God 
Raised  impious  war  in  heav'n,  and  battle  proud, 
With  vain  attempt." 

This  is  the  poet's  philosophy  of  the  Fall— the  Fall  of 
Man  was  preluded  by  the  Fall  of  an  Angel.  Our 
human  rebellion  is  linked  with  the  warfare  in  heaven. 

1''  Revelation  12 :  7.  "  Book  I. 


THE  PURITANS  185 

Milton  could  not,  of  course,  permit  his  great  Epic 
of  the  Fall  to  remain  alone.  The  Paradise  Regained 
was  its  natural  sequel.  In  this  the  poet  in  reality 
stages  the  Temptation  of  Jesus,  not  the  story  of  the 
Cross.  'The  devil  taketh  him  unto  an  exceeding  high 
mountain,  and  showeth  him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world,  and  the  glory  of  them;  and  he  said  unto  him, 
All  these  things  will  I  give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down 
and  worship  me."^®  The  poet's  imagination  seizes 
upon  these  words  and  makes  them  the  text  of  Para- 
dise Regained.  If  Paradise  was  lost  through  man's 
disobedience,  which  itself  sprang  from  an  angel's  am- 
bition and  fall.  Paradise  can  only  be  regained  through 
the  obedience  of  man,  which  in  turn  finds  the  true 
quality  of  victory  in  the  victory  of  the  Son  of  Man 
over  temptation. 

No  preacher  in  all  Christendom  has  ever  preached 
so  powerful  a  sermon  on  the  value  of  Christ's  victory 
over  temptation  as  does  Milton.  The  glory  of  Athens 
and  Rome,  even  the  splendors  of  Parthia,  are  not  suf- 
ficient to  call  our  Savior  away  from  his  benevolent 
purpose  of  redemption.  Only  One  who  was  "tempted 
in  all  points  like  as  we  are"  could  avail  to  help  us  in 
winning  back  our  lost  inheritance — 

'"Now  thou  hast  avenged 
Supplanted  Adam,  and  by  vanquishing 
Temptation,  hast  regain'd  lost  Paradise." 
***** 
"Hail  Son  of  the  Most  High,  heir  of  both  worlds, 
Queller  of  Satan,  on  thy  glorious  work 
Now  enter,  and  begin  to  save  mankind." 

Of    Milton's    "Samson   Agonistes"    James   Russell 
19  Matthew  4 :  8,  9. 


186     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Lowell  declares  that  our  language  has  no  finer  poem 
than  this — "a  tragedy  on  a  Greek  model  with  the 
blinded  Samson  for  its  hero."^° 

"Promise  was  that  I 
Should  Israel  from  Philistian  yoke  deliver ; 
Ask  for  this  great  deliverer  now,  and  find  him 
Eyeless  in  Gaza  at  the  mill  with  slaves." 

The  poet  seizes  upon  the  moment  of  Samson's  humili- 
ating captivity  and  blindness — a  pathetic  touch  of 
autobiography — and  proceeds  to  dramatize  the  situa- 
tion in  his  own  vivid  manner.  The  Preface  to  the 
poem  written  by  Milton  himself  contains  his  vindica- 
iton  of  Tragedy  as  a  form  of  dramatic  art,  and  his 
apology,  written  with  his  Puritan  brethren  in  mind, 
for  the  use  of  stage  effects.  The  poem  is  a  noble  fore- 
runner of  a  long  list  of  dramatic  writings  inspired  by 
persons  or  incidents  of  the  Scripture.^^ 

A  severer  contrast  cannot  be  imagined  than  that  be- 
tween John  Milton  and  John  Bunyan.  Yet  they  are 
alike  in  their  dependence  upon  the  Word  of  God — alike 
also  in  the  literary  glory  which  for  all  time  they  must 
share  with  one  another.  Yet  although  their  names 
are  linked  together  as  the  two  greatest  imaginative 
minds  of  their  century,  the  lesser  of  the  two,  with  the 
flight  of  years,  has  grown  to  be  the  greater.  Milton's 
"grand  organ  peal,"  mighty  as  it  is,  is  not  so  appeal- 
ing, so  human  and  persuasive,  as  the  simple  and  un- 

^^  Among  My  Books.    "Essay  on  Milton." 

21 A  recent  example  of  the  dramatic  use  of  Scriptural 
material  is  The  House  of  Rimmon,  by  Henry  van  Dyke,  based 
upon  the  story  of  Naaman  the  Syrian  captain  who  was  cured 
of  leprosy. 


THE  PURITANS  187 

affected  voice  of  the  tinker  of  Elstow, — who  described 
himself  after  the  manner  of  the  prophet  Amos — "I 
am  no  poet,  nor  poet's  son,  but  a  mechanic."^^ 

As  to  teachers  and  education  he  said,  "I  never  went 
to  school  to  Plato  or  Aristotle,"  reminding  us  of  the 
apostle's  claim  for  himself,  "Neither  went  I  up  to 
Jerusalem  to  them  that  were  apostles  before  me."^' 
As  for  books,  he  knew  The  Plain  Man's  Pathway  to 
Heaven,  and  The  Practise  of  Piety;  also  he  was  well 
acquainted  with  Foxe's  Book  of  Martyrs,  which  in- 
fluenced him  not  a  little.  One  more  book  completes 
the  list,  and  that  is  the  English  Bible,  in  the  at- 
mosphere of  which  more  than  any  man  of  his  time  or 
ours,  Bunyan  lived  and  worked  all  the  years  of  his 
preaching  and  writing.  If  a  simple  and  convincing 
answer  be  sought  for  Bunyan's  power,  his  literary 
preeminence,  his  influence  throughout  the  genera- 
tions, his  style,  his  genius  for  simple  and  effective 
dramatization,  not  to  speak  of  his  spuritual  effective- 
ness, the  answer  is  found  in  one  word — the  Bible  I 

"His  language  was  not  ours: 
*Tis  my  belief,  God  spake: 
No  tinker  has  such  powers." 

That  Bunyan  had  natural  gifts  of  his  own  cannot  be 
denied.  He  was  no  doubt  endowed  with  an  original 
genius.  Moreover  it  is  quite  apparent  that  he  was 
highly  imaginative  in  temper,  and  quick  to  seize  upon 
analogies  of  the  world  and  the  Kingdom.     He  was  a 

22  "I  was  no  prophet,  neither  was  I  a  prophet's  son,  but  I 
was  a  herdsman,  and  a  dresser  of  sycamore  trees.  And 
Jehovah  took  me  from  following  the  flock."    Amos  7:  14,  15. 

23  Galatians  1:17. 


188     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

man  of  the  people,  and  of  common  toil:  and  he  pos- 
sessed to  an  unusual  degree  the  secret  of  those  sim- 
plicities of  thought  and  utterance  which  seem  to  go 
with  the  soil  and  with  workman's  tools.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  prove  that  the  tinker  was  ungifted  and 
boorish — ^he  was  far  from  it. 

An  imagination  such  as  his  was  fertile  soil  for 
Scriptural  seed.  To  him  the  Bible  was  the  most  real 
of  all  books.  Its  persons,  scenes,  and  incidents  took 
hold  upon  him  with  such  power  as  to  become  the  sub- 
ject matter  of  all  his  thinking.  Life  in  terms  of  the 
Scripture  seemed  to  him  a  pilgrimage  with  the  City  of 
Destruction  as  the  point  of  departure,  and  the  Celestial 
City  as  the  goal  to  be  reached.  The  Bible  furnished 
the  material  for  the  experiences  of  the  pilgrim  on  the 
way.  The  picture  that  he  drew  was  no  more  than  a 
rescript,  an  interpretation,  of  that  vast  conflict  which 
is  going  on  constantly  between  Good  and  Evil.  The 
weapons  of  the  warfare  are  Scriptural  weapons,  and 
the  victory  is  a  Scriptural  victory.  The  service  which 
Bunyan  rendered  is  inestimable.  He  proved  that  the 
Bible  is  translatable  into  human  experience:  he 
showed  that  the  faith,  the  decision,  the  emotion  of  the 
Christian  life  are  truly  constructive  of  life,  and  there- 
fore of  literature.  His  little  book.  The  Pilgrim's 
Progress,  is  monumental  in  the  history  of  literature. 
The  poet  Whittier  said  of  it,  "the  infidel  himself  would 
not  willingly  let  it  die." 

"There  is  no  book  in  our  literature  on  which  we 
would  so  readily  stake  the  fame  of  the  old  unpolluted 
English  language,  no  book  which  shows  so  well  how 
rich  that  language  is  in  its  own  proper  wealth,  and  how 
little  it  has  been  improved  by  all  that  it  has  bor- 


THE  PURITANS  180 

rowed."^*  This  is  rare  praise  which  the  historian 
gives  to  Bunyan's  poor  Uttle  book — poor  in  outward 
form,  but  rich  in  thought  and  power.  The  same 
writer  speaks  of  Bunyan's  Holy  War  as  "the  best 
allegory  that  ever  was  written,"  with  the  exception  of 
Pilgrim's  Progress:  and  Grace  Abounding  he  describes 
as  "one  of  the  most  remarkable  pieces  of  autobiogra- 
phy in  the  world." 

Bunyan  knew  nothing  of  English  literature:  the 
schools  contributed  nothing  to  his  power.  He  dipped 
his  pen  in  the  liquid  sympathy  and  power  of  the  Bible 
and  wrote — the  result  was  a  masterpiece.  The  sim- 
plicity of  its  style,  the  wealth  of  its  imagination,  the 
humanness  of  its  narrative,  have  been  the  marvel  of 
students  ever  since.  Bunyan,  with  his  gifted  imagina- 
tion, saw  in  the  Bible  a  panorama  of  the  Kingdom, 
and  thus  he  wrote,  his  heart,  his  imagination,  on  fire 
with  what  he  saw  and  felt.  Milton  adapted  a  classical 
form  to  Biblical  materials,  but  he  never  quite  suc- 
ceeded in  divorcing  himself  from  the  abstract.  Bun- 
yan on  the  contrary  gave  "to  the  abstract  the  interest 
of  the  concrete."  He  took  the  same  Biblical  material 
and  made  it  live  before  the  very  eyes  of  the 
people.  Certain  of  his  characters  can  never  be  for- 
gotten. Greatheart,  Pliable,  Faithful,  Worldly- Wise- 
man, Talkative  and  many  more — are  they  not  as  our 
own  friends  and  neighbors?  The  Pilgrim's  Burden, 
the  Hill  Difficulty,  the  House  of  Interpreter,  the 
Wicket  Gate,  the  Roll,  the  Palace  Beautiful,  the  De- 
lectable Mountains,  the  Land  of  Beulah — how  vivid 
and  personal  they  are !    Giant  Despair,  the  Slough  of 

2*Macaulay.     Essay  on  Southey's  The  Pilgrim's  Progress, 
with  a  Life  of  John  Bunyan. 


190     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Despond,  the  Lions,  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow — 
how  real  they  are! 

It  is  not  merely  that  the  Bible  furnishes  the  author 
with  his  material — it  is  his  inspiration.  The  Bible 
taught  Bunyan  to  write.  It  is  true  that  he  brought  to 
his  task  a  quick  imagination,  nevertheless  it  was  the 
saturation  of  his  mind  with  the  Scripture  that  gave 
exercise  and  direction  to  his  imagination.  Bunyan 
was,  as  Macaulay  says,  almost  a  "living  concordance" 
of  the  Bible.  It  made  him  master  of  a  clear,  in- 
telligible English  style.  It  fed  his  imagination  with 
rich  and  abundant  food.  It  taught  him  the  value  of 
the  story-narrative,  and  the  fascination  of  romance 
and  adventure.  The  old  pilgrim  idea  of  life  "which 
had  so  often  bloomed  in  the  literature  of  all  climes 
and  ages,'*  became  in  Bunyan*s  Biblical  treatment  of 
it  a  story  sermon  of  such  surpassing  vividness  and 
power  as  to  make  it  one  of  the  few  great  allegories 
of  all  time.  "The  pilgrimage  is  our  own — in  many 
of  its  phases  at  least — and  we  have  met  the  people 
whom  Bunyan  saw  in  his  dream,  and  are  ourselves 
they  whom  he  describes."^^ 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  three  great  allegories 
of  the  world's  literature,  Spenser's  Faerie  Queene, 
Dante's  Divine  Comedy,  and  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress, sprang  from  imaginations  that  were  profoundly 
influenced  by  the  Bible.  When  a  highly  imaginative 
mind  takes  vital  hold  of  spiritual  facts  and  experi- 
ences with  a  desire  to  reproduce  them  in  useful  forms 
for  the  benefit  of  mankind,  it  is  almost  certain  to  turn 
to  the  Bible  for  the  material  of  incident  and  illustra- 

25  Article  on  John  Bunyan  in  Warner's  Library  of  the 
World's  Best  Literature,  Rev  Edwin  P.  Parker,  Vol.  VIL 


THE  PURITANS  191 

tion.-®  It  is  on  this  account  that  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's 
Progress  has  been  discriminatingly  described  as  "the 
completest  triumph  of  truth  by  fiction  in  all  litera- 
ture." Careful  writers  have  even  spoken  of  the  tinker 
of  Elstow  as  the  father  of  the  English  novel.  At  least 
we  may  say  that  the  English  novel,  which  was  the 
literary  discovery  of  the  next  century,  was  in  embryo 
in  the  immortal  story  of  Bunyan's  Pilgrim.  It  should 
not  surprise  us,  therefore,  to  find  later  writers  of  Eng- 
lish fiction  down  to  the  present  time  drawing  heavily 
upon  the  Scripture.  It  is  just  now,  for  example, 
much  in  fashion  with  writers  of  fiction,  to  take  even 
their  titles  from  the  Bible.^^ 

A  book  that  has  been  translated  into  almost  every 
known  language  and  dialect,  that  has  been  circulated 
freely  by  all  communions  both  Romanist  and  Prot- 
estant, that  has  in  truth  proved  "a  religious  bond  to 
the  whole  of  English  Christendom" — such  a  book  is 
not  only  a  masterpiece  of  literature,  it  is  also  a  monu- 
ment to  the  literary  influence  of  the  Book  from  which 
it  sprang.  Such  a  book  is  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress, the  most  beautiful  flower  of  Puritan  emotion. 

It  would  be  useful,  if  our  space  permitted,  to  fol- 
low the  strain  of  Puritanism  in  the  later  developments 
of  English  literature.  If  there  are  periods  when  the 
Puritan  influence  seems  to  have  been  wholly  lost, 
later  we  discover  that  it  was  like  a  stream  that  runs 
underground  for  a  time  and  then  reappears.     There 

26  See  English  Literature  in  Account  with  Religion,  Ed- 
ward M.  Chapman,  p.  500,  for  an  interesting  discussion  of 
the  dependence  of  fiction  upon  religion. 

27  The  House  of  Mirth,  The  Fruit  of  the  Tree,  The  Valley 
of  Decision,  three  of  Mrs.  Edith  Wharton's  books,  have 
Biblical  titles. 


192     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Miltonic  earnestness  and 
seriousness,  the  glow  of  moral  purpose  and  sincerity 
which  we  believe  to  be  indigenous  to  English  litera- 
ture, are  Puritanism  in  the  blood.  Strange  to  say, 
one  of  the  best  examples  of  the  modern  Puritan  in 
English  literature  is  Thomas  Carlyle.  He  would  have 
none  of  their  forms  in  theology:  nevertheless  his  in- 
tensity, his  fervor,  his  moral  earnestness,  his  tremen- 
dous idealism  entitle  him  to  rank  among  the  great 
spiritual  teachers  of  his  day.  He  comes  like  a  Hebrew 
prophet,  with  an  Hebraic  earnestness  and  intensity 
that  are  fairly  irresistible.  We  see  him  reading  the 
book  of  Job  in  the  night-time  and  going  to  the  window 
to  look  out  over  the  sleeping  city  of  London.  The 
Bible  spoke  to  him  not  in  conventional  ways — it  gave 
him  a  message  of  mighty  prerogative.  Carlyle,  like 
every  other  great  English  writer,  dipped  his  pen, 
whether  consciously  or  unconsciously,  in  the  deep  well 
of  Scriptural  earnestness  and  power,  and  wrote  for 
men  his  gospel  of  work  and  duty  and  reality. 

Puritanism  also  entered  deeply  into  the  making  of 
literature  in  New  England.  Early  extravagance  of 
manner  prevailed  here  as  in  the  mother  country.  Yet 
here  also  the  strength  of  Puritanism  prevailed.  The 
early  New  England  household  was  nourished  on  the 
Bible.  It  is  wholly  impossible  to  account  for  the 
leadership  of  New  England  in  American  literature 
without  recalling  the  indebtedness  of  the  New  Eng- 
land  Puritans  to  the  Bible.  If  it  be  true,  as  Lowell 
says,  that  New  England  "sits  by  every  fireside  in  the 
land  where  there  is  piety,  culture  and  free  thought,"^^ 

28  Among  My  Books.    Essay  on  "New  England  Two  Cen- 
turies Ago." 


THE  PURITANS  193 

let  us  not  fail  to  observe  that  she  has  the  Bible  upon 
her  lap. 

Nathaniel  Hawthorne  is  the  truest  modem  repre- 
sentative of  New  England  Puritanism,  and  his  in- 
debtedness to  the  Bible  is  manifest  to  all  readers.  His 
tone  of  intensity  and  seriousness,  the  Puritan  sombre- 
ness  of  his  imagination,  the  tendency  to  vex  himself 
continually  to  account  for  the  origin  of  evil,^^  these 
are  strong  marks  of  a  mind  that  had  consorted  much 
with  the  Word  of  God.  In  a  writer  like  Hawthorne, 
whatever  his  theme,  the  effects  are  apt  to  be  moral.^** 
At  least  the  tone  and  color  of  his  work  are  moral,  and 
very  often  Biblical.  This  is  notably  true  in  The 
Scarlet  Letter.  A  better  example  could  not  be  given 
of  the  flowering-out  of  Puritanism  in  fiction  than 
Hawthorne's  magnum  opus.  We  cannot  conceive  of  an 
author  writing  a  book  of  such  intense  moral  power, 
apart  from  the  influence  of  the  Bible.^^ 

29  New  England  Two  Centuries  Ago,  J.  R.  Lowell. 

30  Mr.  Brander  Matthews  has  contrasted  Hawthorne  with 
Foe.  The  latter's  effects,  he  says,  are  physical. 

31  No  one  has  written  more  instructively  about  the  formative 
influence  of  the  Bible  in  New  England  life  than  Mrs.  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe  in  Old-Town  Folks — "After  breakfast  Grand- 
father conducted  family  prayers,  conmencing  always  by  read- 
ing his  chapter  in  the  Bible.  .  .  .  Among  the  many 
insensible  forces  which  formed  the  minds  of  New  England 
children  was  this  constant  daily  familiarity  with  the  letter  of 
the  Bible.  It  was  for  the  most  part  read  twice  a  day  in  every 
family  of  any  pretensions  to  respectability,  and  it  was  read 
as  a  reading-book  in  every  common  school,  in  both  cases  with- 
out any  attempt  at  explanation.  Such  parts  as  explained 
themselves  were  left  to  do  so.  Such  as  were  beyond  our 
knowledge  were  still  read  and  left  to  make  what  impression 
they  would.  For  my  part  I  am  impatient  of  the  theory  of 
those  who  think  that  nothing  that  is  not  understood  makes 


194     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

any  valuable  impression  on  the  mind  of  a  child.  I  am  certain 
that  the  constant  contact  of  the  Bible  with  my  childish  mind 
was  a  great  mental  stimulant,  as  it  certainly  was  the  cause  of 
a  singular  and  vague  pleasure.  The  wild  poetic  parts  of  the 
prophecies,  with  their  bold  figures,  vivid  exclamations,  and 
strange  Oriental  names  and  images,  filled  me  with  a  quaint  and 
solemn  delight.  Just  as  a  child,  brought  up  under  the  shadow 
of  the  great  cathedrals  of  the  Old  World,  wandering  into 
them  daily,  at  morning  or  eventide,  beholding  the  many 
colored  windows  flamboyant  with  strange  legends  of  saints 
and  angels,  and  neither  understanding  the  legends,  nor  com- 
prehending the  architecture,  is  yet  stilled  and  impressed,  till 
the  old  minster  grows  into  his  growth  and  fashions  his  nature, 
so  this  wonderful  old  cathedral  book  insensibly  wrought  a 
sort  of  mystical  poetry  into  the  otherwise  hard  and  sterile 
life  of  New  England.  Its  passionate  Oriental  phrases,  its 
quaint  pathetic  stories,  its  wild,  transcendent  bursts  of 
imagery,  fixed  an  indelible  mark  in  my  imagination.  Where 
Kedar  and  Tarshish  and  Pul  and  Lud,  Chittim  and  the  Isles, 
Dan  and  Beersheba,  were,  or  what  they  were,  I  knew  not,  but 
they  were  fixed  stations  in  my  realm  of  cloud-land.  I  knew 
them  as  well  as  I  knew  my  grandmother's  rocking-chair,  yet 
the  habit  of  hearing  of  them  only  in  solemn  tones,  and  in  the 
readings  of  religious  hours,  gave  to  them  a  mysterious  charm. 
I  think  no  New  Englander  brought  up  under  the  regime 
established  by  the  Puritans,  could  really  estimate  how  much  of 
himself  had  actually  been  formed  by  this  constant  face-to- 
face  intimacy  with  Hebrew  literature."    Pp.  265,  266. 


XVI 
THE    BIBLE    IN    ENGLISH    PROSE 

"Intense  study  of  the  Bible  will  keep  any  writer 
from  being  vulgar  in  point  of  style.'* 

Coleridge's  Table  Talk. 

A  PROFESSOR  of  English  literature  in  one  of 
our  universities  is  authority  for  the  statement 
that  a  process  of  enrichment  and  ennoblement 
of  the  English  language  has  been  going  on  for  nearly 
thirteen  hundred  years,  and  that  one  of  the  chief 
agencies  by  which  it  has  been  effected  is  the  influence, 
direct  and  indirect,  of  the  Bible.^ 

From  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth  down  to  the 
present  time  there  has  been  a  certain  effect  of  Biblical 
diction  that  has  been  clearly  recognizable  in  English 
speakers  and  writers.  There  have,  of  course,  been 
periods  of  extravagance  in  English  style,  when  appar- 
ently the  influence  exercised  by  the  English  Bible  upon 
writers  was  very  slight.  These  stages  of  literary  ex- 
crescence, however,  have  been  invariably  lived 
through,  and  English  literature  has  returned  to  its 
normal  simplicity  and  sanity. 

A  Biblical  trend  has  all  along  manifested  itself, 
especially  in  the  prose  utterance  of  English-speaking 
people.  This  has  become  in  fact  so  much  a  rule  and 
custom  of  English  speech,  that  any  unusual  departure 

^  Albert  S.  Cook,  Professor  of  the  English  Language  and 
Literature  in  Yale  University.  See  his  volume  entitled  The 
Bible  and  English  Prose  Style.    Introduction,  p.  IX. 

195 


196     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

in  the  way  of  complex  or  turgid  style  is  set  down  at 
once  as  a  violation  of  our  traditions  of  speech.  When 
Tennyson's  son  in  the  Biography  speaks  of  the  poet  as 
giving  the  winter  evenings  of  1855  to  translating  the 
classics  aloud  into  "Biblical  prose,"  we  understand 
what  is  meant.  The  characteristics  of  Biblical  style 
are  in  fact  quite  familiar — they  are  such  as  simplicity, 
directness,  concreteness,  picturesqueness,  and  withal  a 
certain  dignity  and  stateliness,  a  grandeur  and  eleva- 
tion— in  short  a  kind  of  "noble  naturalness"^  that 
makes  the  Bible  the  easy  companion  of  our  inmost 
thought  and  need.  These  are  more  than  mere  literary 
qualities,  they  are  the  very  life  and  breath  of  the 
Scripture,  the  outward  reflection  in  waves  of  light  of 
that  inward  life  which  the  Lord  affirmed  to  be  resi- 
dent in  the  Word.  The  impressive  fact  with  which 
we  are  here  concerned  is  that  the  Bible  has  been  pour- 
ing these  qualitative  effects  into  English  speech  and 
writing  for  more  than  a  thousand  years. 

This  process  of  infiltration  of  thought  and  feeling 
into  our  language  has  been  especially  pronounced  since 
the  Bible  appeared  in  full  English  dress.  Saintsbury 
speaks  of  the  authorized  Version  of  the  Bible  in  Eng- 
lish as  "the  school  and  training-ground  of  every  man 
and  woman  of  English  speech  in  the  noblest  uses  of 
the  English  tongue."^    Bowen  says,  "Only  when  your 

2  This  is  Prof.  Cook's  felicitous  phrase  to  comprehend  the 
leading  characteristics  of  Biblical  diction.  He  is  thinking 
especially  of  the  fourfold  appeal  of  the  Bible  to  sensibility, 
intellect,  imagination  and  will.  "It  is  the  union  of  these  in 
due  proportions,  which  constitutes  full  and  perfect  natural- 
ness, and  such  union  we  have  in  many  parts  of  the  Bible." 
The  Bible  and  English  Prose  Style.  Introduction,  pp.  XVI- 
XVIII. 

8  HtMtorv  nf  Elisahethan  Literature.  Chao.  6. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  PROSE  197 

minds  and  memories  have  become  saturated  with  the 
prose  of  our  Common  Version,  with  the  phraseology 
of  Shakespeare,  and  even,  if  one  has  command  of 
French,  with  the  neat  succinctness,  precision,  and  point 
of  Pascal,  will  you  have  mastered  the  elements  of  a 
good  English  style."* 

We  are  well  aware  that  at  this  point  we  are  dealing 
with  complex  influences  that  are  not  easily  analyzed. 
The  style  and  tone  of  English  conversation,  for  ex- 
ample, no  doubt  represent  a  compound  of  effects,  such 
as  racial  temperament,  lingual  inheritance,  environ- 
ment, even  climate.  It  is  impossible,  however,  to 
avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  English  Bible  has  had  a 
very  pronounced  influence  upon  the  prose  style  of 
conversation.  The  simplicity  and  directness  of  Eng- 
lish talk  are  the  natural  sequence  of  long  conversance 
with  the  English  Bible.  Men  do  not  learn  a  stilted 
style  from  the  Bible — rather  they  learn  to  speak  sim- 
ply and  concretely.  They  know  their  point  and  when 
they  speak  they  do  not  wander  listlessly  and  aimlessly 
about,  but  take  a  straight  course  for  a  definite  end. 
This  effect  of  directness  and  simplicity  in  English 
speech  has  been  so  evident  that  many  teachers  of  Eng- 
lish have  insisted  upon  the  study  of  the  Bible  for  this 
purpose. 

But  there  are  other  effects  of  Biblical  influence  on 
conversation  which  are  even  more  important.  Per- 
sons who  know  the  Bible  intimately  scarcely  ever  fail 
to  betray  a  palpable  lift  or  elevation  of  their  style  in 
speech.  Their  conversation  is  unconsciously  height- 
ened. There  is  an  effect  of  "noble  naturalness,"  of 
sanity,  of   spiritual  impressiveness.     We  would  not 

*i4  Layman's  Study  of  the  English  Bible,  Chap.  I. 


198     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

labor  this  point  over-much :  but  we  are  convinced  that 
much  reading  of  the  Scripture  tends  to  bring  a  haunt- 
ing sense  of  spiritual  Hfe  and  reaUty  into  the  conver- 
sation of  men.  At  one  time  it  is  a  touch  of  imagina- 
tion, again  it  is  a  swift  ghmpse  into  an  unknown 
realm,  at  another  time  it  is  a  hint  of  something 
deep  and  wonderful,  at  still  another  time  it  is 
just  the  echo  of  a  beautiful  simplicity  or  a  musi- 
cal cadence  in  speech  that  strikes  on  all  the  chords 
of  life.  Thus  men  who  know  their  English  Bible 
will  at  times  bring  into  conversation  some  quota- 
tion or  allusion  to  the  Scripture  that  "sets  the 
mind  in  a  flame  and  makes  our  hearts  burn  within 
us."  More  often  they  will  without  direct  quotation 
lift  the  level  of  thought  to  some  high  Biblical  frame, 
and  open  the  mind  to  a  feeling  of  moral  weight  and 
imperative,  of  vast  tranquility,  of  unbounded  depths 
of  strength  and  endurance. 

We  are  not  here  describing  the  conversation  of  the 
learned  alone.  Even  ignorant  men  who  have  lingered 
long  in  the  companionship  of  the  Bible  have  become 
powerful  in  tongue  or  pen.  It  is  told  of  a  man  in 
Exeter  that  he  had  "a  way  of  dropping  sentences  that 
changed  people's  lives."  No  book  is  so  well  fitted  as 
the  Bible  to  teach  the  fine  art  of  dropping  healing 
words  upon  the  world's  life.  John  Bunyan  was  not 
a  learned  man.  Nevertheless  his  little  Bible-saturated 
book  has  comforted  and  inspired  many  generations. 

The  best  English  oratory  owes  a  debt  to  the  Bible 
which  every  student  of  such  literature  is  quick  to 
acknowledge.  We  do  not  refer  now  to  pulpit  address, 
rather  to  public  speech  on  other  occasions,  when  the 
dominion  of  the  Bible  over  the  thought  of  the  speaker 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  PROSE  199 

is  not  a  matter  of  course.  It  were  an  easy  matter  to 
search  through  the  great  EngHsh  orations  of  the  past 
for  quotations  and  allusions.  They  would  be  found 
to  be  very  abundant.  We  recall  the  impressive  pas- 
sage in  Burke's  "Address  to  the  King,"  which  Lord 
Grenville  pronounced  the  best  that  Burke  ever  wrote 
— "What,  gracious  Sovereign,  is  the  empire  of 
America  to  us,  or  the  empire  of  the  world,  if  we  lose 
our  own  liberties!" — an  application  evidently  of  the 
Lord's  words,  "What  shall  a  man  be  profited,  if  he 
shall  gain  the  whole  world,  and  forfeit  his  life?"' 

Among  American  orators  w^  remember  Patrick 
Henry's  fervent  words  in  the  speech  before  the  Vir- 
ginia Convention  in  1775 — "Gentlemen  may  cry  Peace, 
Peace — ^but  there  is  no  peace" ;  Thaddeus  Stevens*  im- 
pressive use  of  the  story  of  the  Egyptian  bondage  in 
his  speech  against  Webster  and  northern  com- 
promisers;® and  Samuel  Sullivan  Cox's  sublime  per- 
oration on  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  delivered  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  July  3rd,  1879.'' 

Scarcely  a  day  passes  in  which  some  speaker  does 
not  adorn  or  fortify  his  public  address  with  allusions 
to  the  Bible.  There  was  a  public  occasion  in  an  Ameri- 
can city  some  years  ago  when  two  Southern  orators 
described  the  woes   of  the  southland   following  the 

«  Payne's  "Introduction  to  Burke."  Select  Works,  I,  XXXV- 
XXXVI.  The  author  adds,  "In  the  sections  of  his  works  in 
which  this  grave  simplicity  is  most  prominent,  Burke  fre- 
quently employed  the  impressive  phrases  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, affording  a  signal  illustration  of  the  truth  that  he 
neglects  the  most  valuable  repository  of  rhetoric  in  the  Eng- 
lish language  who  has  not  well  studied  the  English  Bible." 

«  See  The  World's  Best  Orations,  Vol.  IX. 

f  Ibid..  Vol.  IV. 


200     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Civil  War.  When  they  had  finished,  Senator  Hoar, 
who  was  present,  arose  and  walking  across  the  plat- 
form said  in  substance — "Bitter  things  have  been  said 
and  done  in  the  past.  I  myself  have  seen  bitterness. 
But  now — 'thy  people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God 
my  God.'  "« 

It  is  a  notable  fact  that  when  men  would  speak 
strongly  and  fervently,  as  well  as  simply,  they  betake 
themselves  to  the  diction  of  the  Bible.  Even  as  these 
words  were  being  penned  an  orator  referring  to  Bel- 
gium's sorrows  said,  ''Belgium's  mighty  neighbor 
coveted  her  vineyard!"  And  another,  describing  Bel- 
gium's courage,  said,  "David  bravely  faced  Goliath." 
Speaking  of  Germany's  broken  promises,  he  added, 
"She  promised  bread,  she  gave  a  stone."  And  again, 
"Belgium  has  been  nailed  to  the  cross  for  the  welfare 
of  civihzation.  Let  us  not  wait  until  she  cries,  'It  is 
finished.' " 

It  is  not  alone  by  Scriptural  quotation  and  allusion 
that  oratory  gains  in  power.  More  than  all  it  is  the 
sense  of  command,  and  of  finality,  that  the  Bible  im- 
parts to  public  speech.  Abraham  Lincoln's  use  of  the 
Bible  has  often  been  the  subject  of  remark.  He  used 
it  not  merely  for  ornament  and  illustration,  but  mainly 
for  enforcement.  When  Lincoln  referred  to  the  Bible, 
it  seemed  like  the  last  word  that  could  be  said  on  any 

8  Chateaubriand  makes  use  of  this  passage  in  the  Book  of 
Ruth  (i :  i6),  in  which  the  Moabitess  begs  to  be  permitted  to 
accompany  Naomi,  as  an  example  of  the  simple  grandeur  of 
the  Bible,  In  contrast  with  the  massed  and  elaborate  grandeur 
of  Homer.  "What  poetry,"  says  Chateaubriand,  "can  ever 
be  equivalent  to  this  single  stroke  of  eloquence,  Thy  people 
shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God  my  God.'"  See  Genius  of 
Christianity,  Part  II,  Book  5,  Chaps.  3  and  4. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  PROSE  201  . 

subject.  It  gave  a  sort  of  fibrous  strength  to  his  ora- 
tory. The  Gettysburg  Speech  is  a  remarkable  example 
of  "the  stillness  of  power,"  and  one  reads  it  with 
much  the  same  impression  that  comes  with  the  read- 
ing of  the  Old  Testament  prophets,  notably  Isaiah, 
Amos  and  Hosea.  "The  grand  colors  of  Biblical  dic- 
tion" in  the  Second  Inaugural  give  it  an  impressive- 
ness  of  an  unusual  character.  In  several  instances 
Lincoln  rested  the  weight  of  his  argument  upon  Bibli- 
cal sentiment.  "With  malice  towards  none,  with 
charity  for  all" — sounds  like  an  addendum  to  the 
thirteenth  chapter  of  First  Corinthians.  When  Lin- 
coln used  the  very  words  of  Scripture  in  his  famous 
speech  at  Springfield  in  1858,  declaring  that  "A  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot  stand,"  a  profound  im- 
pression was  produced.  So  also  when  he  referred  to 
slavery  in  his  Second  Inaugural  in  this  language — 
"Woe  unto  the  world  because  of  offenses !  for  it  must 
needs  be  that  offenses  come :  but  woe  to  that  man  by 
whom  the  offense  cometh." 

Another  remarkable  example  of  the  impressive  use 
of  the  Scripture  in  public  addresses  is  furnished  by 
President  Woodrow  Wilson.  It  is  evident  to  his  hear- 
ers that  his  memory  has  been  steeped  in  the  thought 
and  language  of  the  Bible.  With  him  the  words  of 
Scripture  appear  to  slip  into  utterance  unbidden.  We 
find  him  saying,  for  example,  of  his  political  oppo- 
nents on  one  occasion — "Their  thought  is  not  our 
thought" — and  there  is  no  feeling  that  this  Biblical 
form  has  been  consciously  pressed  into  service.  Rather 
it  is  the  natural  expression  of  a  mind  that  has  lived 
from  childhood  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  Bible.  To 
such  an  one  the  Bible  is  the  natural  vehicle  of  human 


202     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

expression.  It  has  sounded  the  depths  of  our  life,  and 
its  language  better  than  any  other  is  able  to  catch  and 
hold  the  overflow  of  our  feelings. 

We  observe  this  same  tendency  of  the  Scripture  to 
come  unbidden  into  utterance  in  the  conversation  of 
men  whose  ears  have  grown  accustomed  to  the  sound 
of  it.  Newman  reminds  us  that  it  is  an  incalculable 
benefit  that  the  "grave  majestic  language"  of  the  Bible 
is  heard  in  constant  reiteration  in  the  church,  and  in 
the  family.  It  gives  tone  to  the  thought  of  the  people 
and  tends  constantly  to  elevate  their  speech.  It  is 
not  an  uncommon  experience  with  persons  who  are 
well-read  in  the  Bible  to  find  themselves,  when  strug- 
gling for  the  right  word  or  turn  of  expression,  laying 
hold  unconsciously  of  a  phrase  or  figure  of  the  Scrip- 
ture. Indeed  we  have  all  observed  that  those  whose 
minds  are  saturated  with  the  Bible  have  a  habit 
of  reflecting  the  thought  and  language  of  the  Bible 
when  they  speak  or  write  in  such  a  way  as  to  cause 
the  inquiry,  "Was  this  or  that  sentence  taken  from  the 
Bible  or  from  some  other  book?'*  This  manner  of 
unconscious  imitation  is  a  striking  testimony  to  the 
elemental  power  of  the  Scripture. 

Many  have  looked  in  vain  in  the  Bible  for  Laurence 
Sterne's  beautiful  words — "God  tempers  the  wind  to 
the  shorn  lamb."  It  has  a  Biblical  sound.  We  are  not 
surprised  to  find  Sterne's  biographer  saying  of  him 
that  he  read  and  re-read  the  Bible  during  the  long 
winter  evenings  at  Sutton  "with  the  result  that  his 
style  became  saturated  with  the  words  and  phrases  of 
the  English  version."  Sterne  himself  describes  two 
kinds  of  eloquence — one  that  consists  of  labored  and 
polished  periods  and  grandly  embellished  paragraphs, 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGUSH  PROSE  203 

"a  vain  and  boyish  eloquence."  "The  other  sort  of 
eloquence,"  he  adds,  "is  quite  the  reverse  and  may  be 
said  to  be  the  true  characteristic  of  Holy  Scripture, 
where  the  excellence  does  not  arise  from  a  labored  and 
far-fetched  elocution,  but  from  a  surprising  mixture 
of  simplicity  and  majesty,  which  is  a  double  character 
so  difficult  to  be  united  that  it  is  seldom  to  be  met  with 
in  compositions  merely  human."* 

It  is  instructive  to  observe  that  editorial  writers  in 
newspapers  turn  frequently  and  naturally  to  the  Bible 
to  reenforce  their  argument,  to  illustrate  their  les- 
sons, or  to  adorn  their  paragraphs.  It  furnishes  them 
abundant  material  for  happy  turns  of  expression,  but 
more  than  this,  it  brings  writer  and  reader  to  a  com- 
mon ground  of  understanding.  To  those  who  have 
been  fed  intellectually  and  morally  on  the  clearness 
and  force  of  the  Bible,  it  forms  a  court  of  appeal 
both  for  reason  and  emotion.  Editorial  writers  are 
quick  to  avail  themselves  of  this  popular  prerogative 
of  Scripture.  In  times  of  great  stress  and  anxiety 
especially  it  is  common  to  see  writers  for  the  press 
betaking  themselves  to  the  use  of  Biblical  phrases  and 
illustrations.  At  such  times  men  crave  the  solidity  of 
the  Book,  and  its  sanity  of  expression.  Their  minds 
are  somehow  comforted  and  satisfied  when  they  avail 
themselves  of  the  words  of  the  English  Bible.  Speak- 
ing of  the  inefficiency  of  governmental  machinery  to 
alleviate  popular  distress,  an  editorial  writer  sums  up 
the  situation  in  such  conclusive  Biblical  language  as 
this — "In  their  distress  they  are  asking  bread  of  gov- 

*  Life  and  Times  of  Laurence  Sterne,  Wilbur  L.  Cross, 
Professor  of  English  in  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  Yale  Uni- 
versity, p.  479. 


204     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATUIIE 

emmental  machinery  which  cannot  give  them  bread — 
whose  normal  output  under  such  conditions  is  only  a 
stone/'^o 

To  discuss  in  full  the  place  of  the  Bible  in  English 
prose  would  lead  us  far  afield.  Omitting  history,  sci- 
ence and  philosophy — which,  however,  have  not  been 
untouched  by  the  Bible — we  find  an  indelible  stamp  of 
Scripture  especially  upon  essayists,  writers  of  fiction, 
and  other  intermediate  forms  of  imaginative  lierature 
in  prose.  It  is  difficult  to  discover  any  masterful  Eng- 
lish writer  in  the  last  three  hundred  and  fifty  years 
who  has  not  been  more  or  less  beholden  to  the  Bible. 
Izaak  Walton,  who  was  really  an  Elizabethan,  who 
had  "the  quaint  freshness,  the  apparently  artless  music 
of  language  of  the  Great  Age,"  whose  book.  The 
Compleat  Angler,  "would  sweeten  a  man's  temper  at 
any  time  to  read  it,  would  Christianize  every  angry, 
discordant  passion,"  as  Charles  Lamb  wrote  to  Cole- 
ridge— Izaak  Walton  opened  his  treatise  on  angling 
with  a  quotation  from  the  Gospels,  and  concluded  it 
with  the  apostle's  words  to  the  Thessalonians,  "Study 
to  be  quiet."^^  The  whole  book  indeed  contains  that 
appeal  to  the  "musical  sensibility"  of  the  mind  which 
is  so  marked  a  characteristic  of  many  prose  passages 
of  the  Bible.^2 

If  we  think  of  the  best  written  prose  in  English  in 
recent  times  the  names  that  occur  most  readily  to 
mind  as  examples  of  Biblical  influence  are  the  names 
of  Carlyle,  Ruskin  and  Lowell.  None  have  written 
better  English  prose  than  these,  and  they  are  all  copi- 

10  New  York  Tribune,  Feb.  23,  191 7. 

11  See  The  Compleat  Angler. 

12  See  De  Mille's  Elements  of  Rhetoric,  Par.  299. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  PROSE  205 

ous  borrowers  both  of  the  spirit  and  language  of  the 
Scripture. 

Thomas  Carlyle  as  a  theologian  is  very  disappoint- 
ing. It  has  been  said  of  him  that  he  was  "a  Calvinist 
who  had  lost  his  creed."  Nevertheless  he  never  parts 
company  with  the  Bible.  One  can  open  The  French 
Revolution  almost  at  random  and  find  a  passage  that 
has  a  Biblical  sound.  Charles  Kingsley  declared  that 
he  would  be  forever  indebted  to  Carlyle's  Revolution 
for  having  learned  from  it  the  value  of  his  own  life 
and  responsibility  for  duty.  The  prophets  especially 
figure  in  his  writings.  Something  in  the  stormy  spirit 
of  the  Scotch  cynic  allied  him  with  the  Old  Testament 
prophets.  He  is  the  John  the  Baptist  of  English 
Hterature,  crying  in  the  wilderness,  feeding  his  spirit 
with  locusts  and  wild  honey,  and  clothing  his  thought 
in  a  rough  mantle  of  camel's  hair.  One  cannot  think 
of  his  great  plainness  of  speech,  his  ruggedness,  his 
utter  directness,  without  thinking  of  Amos  and  Hosea, 
and  still  more  of  Job.  Like  the  last  of  these,  he  is 
always  face  to  face  with  the  mystery  of  existence,  and 
he  is  brave  to  the  end. 

In  Carlyle  more  than  in  any  other  we  are  aware  of 
the  prophetic  quality  which  the  Bible  has  contributed 
to  English  literature.  This  is  a  mark  of  distinction 
in  our  literature.  We  hold  that  in  nothing  has  the 
influence  of  the  Bible  been  more  manifest  than  in 
that  evident  desire  of  English  writers  to  reach  out 
after  ideals  of  beauty,  truth,  justice,  peace,  righteous- 
ness and  usefulness.  That  sense  of  moral  restraint 
and  longing,  and  still  more  that  heat  of  moral  passion 
in  the  best  prose  and  poetry  of  our  language — where 
else  could  these  have  their  source  than  in  the  Bible? 


206     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

It  is  for  this  reason,  despite  his  faults,  that  men  class 
Thomas  Carlyle  among  the  prophets  of  the  spiritual 
life. 

John  Ruskin  is  his  companion  in  this,  as  he  is  also 
in  the  beauty  and  strength  of  his  English  prose. 
George  Eliot  once  said  of  Ruskin,  "he  teaches  with 
the  inspiration  of  a  Hebrew  prophet."  Ruskin's 
writings  are  interwoven  throughout  with  the  text  of 
Scripture,  and  where  he  does  not  openly  quote  or  re- 
fer to  the  Bible,  the  reader  feels  that  it  is  in  the  back- 
ground of  his  thought.  For  him  it  furnishes  the 
richest  possible  field  of  imagination  and  illustration. 
For  him  it  is  fraught  with  every  impulse  to  thought, 
every  stimulus  to  endeavor.  For  him  it  is  atmos- 
pheric and  color-laden  in  all  those  gifts  and  graces 
that  make  up  that  most  real  thing  in  human  life — a 
Christian  character. 

Opening  Ruskin's  St.  Mark's  Rest  at  random,  here 
is  an  example  both  of  his  rich  prose  and  his  unmis- 
takable Biblical  feeling.  He  is  describing  one  of  the 
panels  of  St.  Mark's,  representing  in  its  sculpture 
twelve  sheep,  six  on  one  side,  and  six  on  the  other,  of 
a  throne :  on  the  throne  a  cross :  on  the  top  of  the  cross 
a  circle:  and  in  the  circle  a  little  caprioling  creature! 
Besides  there  are  two  palm  trees,  and  two  baskets  of 
dates.    And  here  is  Ruskin's  comment — 

"Take  your  glass  and  study  the  carving  of  this  bas-relief 
intently.  It  is  full  of  sweet  care,  subtlety,  tenderness  of  touch, 
and  mind;  and  fine  cadence  and  change  of  line  in  the  little 
bowing  heads  and  bending  leaves.  Decorative  in  the  extreme : 
a  kind  of  stone-stitching  or  sampler-work,  done  with  the  in- 
nocence of  a  girl's  heart,  and  in  a  like  unlearned  fullness. 
Here  is  a  Christian  man,  bringing  order  and  loveliness  into 
the  mere  furrows  of  stone.    Not  by  any  means  as  learned  as 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  PROSE  207 

a  butcher,  in  the  joints  of  lamb:  nor  as  a  grocer,  in  the  bas- 
kets of  dates:  nor  as  a  gardener,  in  indigenous  plants:  but 
an  artist  to  the  heart's  core:  and  no  less  true  a  lover  of 
Christ  and  his  word.  Helpless,  with  his  child  art,  to  carve 
Christ,  he  carves  a  cross,  and  caprioling  little  thing  in  a  ring 
at  the  top  of  it.  You  may  try — ^you — to  carve  Christ,  if  you 
can."" 

Ruskin  can  scarcely  write  a  page  without  some 
image  or  hint  or  symbol  of  the  Scripture  coming  to 
his  mind  and  springing  to  the  point  of  his  pen.  It 
has  been  said  of  him  that  it  is  due  to  him  more  than 
to  any  other  man  of  our  race  that  a  multitude  of 
men  and  women  understand  to-day  the  finer  meanings 
of  the  text,  "The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God, 
and  the  firmament  showeth  His  handiwork,"  for  he 
taught  men  to  look  at  the  sky  and  the  clouds  and  to 
distinguish  tints  and  forms.  A  volume  of  three  hun- 
dred pages  has  been  prepared  containing  passages  in 
Ruskin's  writings  that  are  based  directly  on  the 
Scripture.^*  Thirty-one  books  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  twenty- four  of  the  New  Testament  appear  in  the 
index  to  this  volume.  When  Ruskin  himself  was 
asked  about  the  sources  of  his  style,  he  replied  that  it 
came  from  the  Bible  and  Carlyle.  "Once  knowing  the 
32nd  of  Deuteronomy,  the  119th  Psalm,  the  15th  of 
1st  Corinthians,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  most 
of  the  Apocalypse,  every  syllable  by  heart,  and  having 
always  a  way  of  thinking  with  myself  what  words 
meant,  it  was  not  possible  for  me,  even  in  the  fool- 
ishest  times  of  youth,  to  write  entirely  superficial  or 
formal  English.""     His  tribute  to  the  "maternal  in- 

13  Chapter  IV. 

1*  The  Bible  References  of  Ruskin,  by  Mary  and  Ellen  Gibbs. 

^^  Praeierita,  Chap.  I. 


208     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

stallation"  of  his  mind  in  the  property  of  a  long  list  of 
chapters,  which  he  counted  very  confidently  "the  most 
precious,  and,  on  the  whole,  the  one  essential  part  of 
all  his  education,*'  is  a  classic  among  the  testimonies 
of  literary  men  to  the  influence  of  the  Bible. 

Ruskin  has  the  Old  Testament  delight  in  nature, 
and  its  feeling  of  tender  mystery  and  awe,  like  that  of 
Job  and  the  prophet  Amos.  Everything  that  hath  been 
made  has  for  him  the  sacredness  of  the  Creator's 
touch.    For  him  the  primal  law  of  life  is  reverence. 

Another  notable  example  of  Scriptural  influence  on 
the  best  English  prose  is  furnished  in  the  writings  of 
James  Russell  Lowell.  The  two  volumes  of  Lowell's 
letters  contain  references  to  twenty-five  books  of 
the  Bible.  In  his  essay  on  Spenser,  speaking  of  the 
vitality  of  literature,  he  asks,  "Can  these  dry  bones 
live?"  Again,  speaking  of  the  "interminable  poems" 
that  require  so  much  time  for  their  reading  and  with 
slight  result,  he  says,  "Consider  the  life  of  man,  that 
we  flee  away  as  a  shadow,  that  our  days  are  as  a 
post !"  Again,  he  refers  to  the  dawning  consciousness 
of  new  life  in  England  and  "the  exhilaration  of  relief 
after  the  long  tension  of  anxiety,  when  the  Spanish 
Armada  was  overwhelmed  like  the  hosts  of  Pha- 
raoh."^^  Lowell's  aptness  in  alluding  to  the  Scripture 
amounts  at  times  to  conclusive  argument,  as  when  he 
criticizes  a  certain  commentator  on  Milton  who  has 
written  with  his  mind  so  much  on  circumstances  that 
Milton  himself  becomes  a  mere  speck  on  the  canvas. 
"His  work  reminds  us,"  says  this  skilful  wielder  of 
Scriptural  material,  "of  AUston's  picture  of  Elijah  in 
the  wilderness,  where  a  good  deal  of  research  at    last 

^^  Among  My  Books,  Vol.  11. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  PROSE  209 

enables  us  to  guess  at  the  prophet  absconded  Uke  a 
conundrum  in  the  landscape,  where  the  very  ravens 
could  scarce  have  found  him  out,  except  by  divine 
commission."^^  This  art  of  apt  and  conclusive  refer- 
ence to  the  Scripture  is  much  coveted  by  English 
writers,  and  while  with  some  it  is  very  indelicately 
used,  like  "carving  statues  with  hatchets,"  with  others, 
and  these  such  masters  as  Lowell,  it  is  used  with  such 
delicacy  and  power  as  to  give  a  genuine  flavor  and 
distinction  to  what  is  written. 

The  place  of  the  Bible  in  the  prose  of  English 
fiction  is  worthy  of  an  extended  treatise.  If  it  seem 
strange  to  say  that  the  Bible  has  made  a  large  con- 
tribution to  fiction,  let  it  be  remembered  how  intensely 
human  it  is,  and  how  crowded  its  pages  are  with  those 
representative  experiences  that  constitute  the  very 
fabric  of  life.  Moreover,  there  are  large  portions  of 
the  Scripture  that  are  cast  in  the  very  forms  of  litera- 
ture that  are  necessary  to  the  writer  of  fiction.  The 
story  element  of  the  Bible  is  by  no  means  its  least 
attractive  material.  At  length  the  value  of  the  Bibli- 
cal stories  for  educational  purposes  is  receiving  recog- 
nition, and  writers  of  schoolbooks  are  now  making 
copious  use  of  Scriptural  material.^^ 

A  long  list  of  Biblical  titles  of  works  of  fiction  could 
be  compiled.  Writers  seem  to  feel  that  if  they  can 
select  apt  Biblical  titles,  they  are  certain  of  popular 
attention.  There  is  a  directness  of  appeal  in  such 
titles  that  furnishes  even  commercial  value.  Thack- 
eray's Vanity  Fair  is  not  literally  a  Biblical  title — it 

1^  Among  My  Books,  Vol.  IL    "Essay  on  Milton." 
18  See  Young  and  Fields*  Literary  Readers;  also  Pearson 
and  Kirch-way's  Essentials  of  English. 


210    THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

came  by  way  of  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress.  Miss 
Corelli's  The  Master  Christian  and  Barabbas  are 
frankly  Scriptural.  Sir  Walter  Besant  calls  often 
upon  the  Bible  in  naming  his  books.  Witness  Chil- 
dren of  Gibeon,  The  City  of  Refuge,  The  Demoniac, 
The  Lament  of  Dives  and  The  Alabaster  Box.  Hall 
Caine  also  borrows  from  the  Scripture  in  the  Scape- 
goat and  A  Son  of  Hagar.  The  usefulness  of  these 
titles  lies  in  their  suggestiveness — they  bring  to  mind 
usually  whole  pages  of  the  Bible,  often  with  accom- 
panying ethical  and  spiritual  lessons.  More  than  one 
author  uses  The  Wages  of  Sin  as  a  title.  Anthony 
TroUope  writes  An  Eye  for  an  Eye  and  Israel  Zang- 
well  writes  The  Mantle  of  Elijah.  Bricks  Without 
Straw  and  Figs  and  Thistles  by  Tourgee  were  favorite 
books  in  their  day.  Single  phrases  of  the  Scripture, 
such  as  "In  the  valley  of  the  shadow,"  "The  sword  of 
the  Lord,"  "Whither  thou  goest,"  "Thou  fool,"  "A 
certain  rich  man,"  "Prisoners  of  Hope,"  "A  thief  in 
the  night,"  "The  way  of  a  man,"  "In  his  steps,"  "The 
way  of  an  eagle,"  and  many  others  have  been  taken 
as  book  titles. 

Professor  Cook  makes  the  interesting  statement  that 
in  three  books  which  he  read  for  entertainment  he 
found  many  Scriptural  quotations  and  allusions.  One, 
a  book  on  life  in  an  Italian  province,  contained  sixty- 
three  references:  another,  a  work  on  the  life  of  wild 
animals,  contained  twelve:  and  a  third,  a  novel  by 
Thomas  Hardy,  contained  eighteen.^^  Anyone  who 
reads  attentively  will  have  a  similar  experience. 
Novelists  are  by  no  means  the  least  of  those  who  are 

1®  The  Authorised  Version  of  the  Bible  and  its  Influence, 
Albert  S.  Cook,  p.  70. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  PROSE  211 

beholden  to  the  Bible.  The  truth  is  that  men  who  are 
deeply  in  earnest  in  writing  about  life  find  it  very  dif- 
ficult to  dispense  with  Scriptural  language  and 
imagery.  When  Mr.  Britling  went  to  his  study  and 
stared  helplessly  at  maps,  it  seemed  to  him  that  it  was 
as  if  David  had  flung  his  pebble — and  missed!  It 
seemed  to  him  too  that  England  was  sending  her  chil- 
dren through  the  fires  to  Moloch.  Again — "the  sort 
of  thing  that  is  done  over  here  in  the  green  army  will 
be  done  over  there  in  the  dry."^® 

Writers  now  and  then  show  extraordinary  skill  in 
adapting  the  incidents  of  Scripture  to  their  needs  even 
if  they  must  presume  too  much  upon  the  knowledge  of 
the  average  reader.  Thus  in  The  Inner  Shrine  one 
writes  in  a  letter,  "There  will  arrive  in  your  city  by  the 
steamer  Picardie,  on  the  twenty-eighth  day  of  this 
month,  two  foolish  women  answering  to  the  name  of 
Eveleth — mother-in-law  and  daughter-in-law,  both 
widows — and  presenting  the  sorry  spectacle  of  Naomi 
and  Ruth  returning  to  the  land  of  Promise  after  a 
ruinous  sojourn  in  a  foreign  country."  The  whole  of 
the  Biblical  story  is  suggested  here,  but  does  the 
reader  know  it  well  enough  to  understand  ?  Evidently 
the  author  fears  not,  for  he  makes  one  who  listened 
to  the  letter  inquire  immediately,  "Is  there  a  Bible  in 
the  house,  mother?" 

The  wealth  of  dramatic  incident  in  the  Bible  fur- 
nishes much  material  ready  to  hand  for  the  writer 
of  fiction.  The  Bible  is  rich  in  the  literature  of  action. 
A  single  phrase  or  sentence  will  often  serve  as  a  text 
for  a  story,  as  where  it  is  said  of  the  prodigal  son  that 
"he  came  to  himself,"  or  where  it  is  stated  of  Lot's 

20  Mr.  Britling  Sees  It  Through,  H.  G.  Wells. 


212     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

wife  that  she  "looked  back,"  or  where  it  is  af- 
firmed of  a  sinful  life  that  "the  wages  of  sin 
is  death/*  or  where  the  law  of  harvest  in  life 
is  given,  "whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall . 
he  also  reap."  Many  works  of  fiction  have  been 
written  with  one  or  other  of  these  Scriptural  thoughts 
as  the  motif.  Scripture  narrative  too  contributes  a 
great  deal  of  material  to  story- writers,  both  as  to 
theme  and  form.  There  are  scores  of  scenes  in  the 
Bible  that  live  irresistibly  in  memory  and  repeat  them- 
selves unconsciously  in  literature.  "The  days  of  crea- 
tion; the  narratives  of  Joseph  and  his  brethren,  of 
Ruth,  of  the  final  defeat  of  Ahab,  of  the  discomfiture 
of  the  Assyrian  host  of  Sennacharib;  the  moral  dis- 
courses of  Ecclesiastes  and  Ecclesiasticus  and  the 
Book  of  Wisdom;  the  poems  of  the  Psalms  and  the 
Prophets;  the  visions  of  the  Revelation — a  hundred 
other  passages  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  catalogue — 
will  always  be  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  English  composition 
in  their  several  kinds,  and  the  storehouse  from  which 
generation  after  generation  of  writers,  sometimes 
actually  hostile  to  religion  and  often  indifferent  to  it, 
will  draw  materials,  and  not  infrequently  the  actual 
form,  of  their  most  impassioned  and  elaborate  pas- 
sages."^^ 

It  is  in  theme  and  plot  that  writers  of  fiction  are 
most  of  all  indebted  to  the  Bible.  Being,  as  it  is,  a 
vast  library  of  human  experience,  the  Bible  is  closely 
related  to  life  at  many  important  points.  Its  major 
scenes  and  incidents,  its  plots  and  situations,  its  whole 
force  of  dramatic  action,  are  at  the  command  of  those 
who  seek  to  depict  life,  whether  in  the  form  of  ro- 

^^  History  of  Elizabethan  Literature,  Saintsbury,  Chap.  6. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  PROSE  213 

mance  or  tragedy.  Hall  Caine  the  novelist  gives  his 
testimony  on  this  point.  "I  think  that  I  know  my 
Bible  as  few  literary  men  know  it.  There  is  no  book 
in  the  world  like  it,  and  the  finest  novels  ever  written 
fall  far  short  in  interest  of  any  one  of  the  stories  it 
tells.  Whatever  strong  situations  I  have  in  my  books 
are  not  my  creation,  but  are  taken  from  the  Bible. 
The  Deemster  is  a  story  of  the  Prodigal  Son.  The 
Bondman  is  the  story  of  Esau  and  Jacob.  The  Scape- 
goat is  the  story  of  Eli  and  his  sons,  but  with  Samuel 
as  a  little  girl ;  and  The  Manxman  is  the  story  of 
David  and  Uriah." 

It  is  the  story-teller,  as  much  as  the  preacher,  who 
discovers  in  modern  life  the  "human  analogue"  to  the 
persons  and  incidents  of  the  Bible.  Certain  great 
books  like  The  Scarlet  Letter  have  done  more  than 
many  sermons  to  carry  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  over 
into  the  arena  of  life.^*  George  Eliot  was  but  a  scant 
believer,  yet  her  three  masterpieces,  Silas  Marner, 
Adam  Bede,  and  Romola,  contain  powerful  briefs  for 
Christianity  and  are  distinctly  Biblical  in  theme  and 
tone. 

In  the  matter  of  plot  invention  it  may  be  truly  said 
that  there  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun.  From  time 
immemorial  story-tellers  have  been  compelled  to  con- 
fine themselves  to  a  relatively  small  number  of  plots. 
Their  art  consists,  so  far  as  variety  Is  concerned,  in 
putting  new  faces  on  old  figures.  Almost  without 
exception  the  major  plots  used  by  story-tellers  are 
represented  prominently  in  the  Bible  by  familiar 
stones  and  situations. 

22  See  the  present  author's  volume,  The  Fascination  of  the 
Book,  p.  172. 


214     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

The  story  of  Joseph  in  the  Old  Testament  and  of 
Onesimus  in  the  New  Testament  are  impressive  and 
beautiful  examples  of  the  "Divinity  that  shapes  our 
ends":  while  Jesus*  ever-memorable  Parable  of  the 
Prodigal  Son  has  influenced  generations  of  story- 
writers  who  have  dealt  with  the  waste  of  Hfe  and  its 
ultimate  restoration.  The  scene  between  King  David 
and  the  prophet  Nathan,  with  its  startling  denouement, 
"Thou  art  the  man,"  is  a  powerful  example  of  an  oft- 
recurrent  plot,  where  the  story  turns  upon  the  length 
to  which  personal  sin  may  carry  an  otherwise  good 
man,  until  some  great  exposure  reveals  the  sinner  to 
himself  as  well  as  to  the  world.  Hawthorne's  Scarlet 
Letter  is  the  strongest  modern  example  of  this  plot. 

Another  familiar  plot  much  used  in  literature  is  that 
wherein  quantity  and  quality  contend  with  one  an- 
other, where  there  is  a  matching  of  unequal  forces, 
the  weak  against  the  strong,  meagre  weapons  against 
heavy  arms,  with  the  victory  turning  at  length  to  the 
weak.  Literature  has  made  heavy  demands  upon  this 
plot,  but  where  has  it  ever  been  used  with  such  ef- 
fectiveness as  in  the  story  of  David  and  Goliath,  and 
the  story  of  Gideon's  army?  Or  take  the  story  of 
Ruth — how  this  beautiful  little  idyl  has  gone  forth 
into  literature !  The  plot  here  turns  upon  three  points, 
first  the  sorrow  and  solitude  of  life,  next  the  reward 
of  virtue  and  the  crowning  of  simple  trust,  third,  the 
Providence  that  watches  over  the  affairs  of  human 
hearts.  Scores  of  books  have  been  written  with  this 
same  motif,  presenting  a  background  of  homely  sur- 
roundings, with  love's  masterful  independence  of  life's 
station.  Other  narratives  of  the  Old  Testament  fur- 
nish suggestive  material  for  romance,  for  example,  the 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  PROSE  215 

story  of  Isaac  and  Rebecca,  and  the  interesting  ac- 
count of  Jacob's  long  devotion  to  Rachel — a  devotion 
that  outlasted  death,  as  the  patriarch's  charge  to  Jo- 
seph proves.  If  it  be  the  romance  of  childhood  that 
is  asked  for,  the  plot  that  thickened  about  the  life  of 
the  child  Moses,  and  the  wonderful  way  in  which  he 
was  led  out  and  up  into  life,  has  long  been  a  model 
for  story-tellers. 

The  story  of  Esther  has  been  reproduced  times 
without  number  in  literature.  Every  element  of  tragic 
plot  is  here,  difficulty,  misunderstanding,  entangle- 
ment, ambition,  intrigue — then  the  denouement  in  the 
King's  sleepless  night  and  his  discovery  of  Mordecai's 
faithfulness.  The  motif  throughout  is  to  show  that 
while  good  may  suffer  temporary  eclipse,  it  will  come 
forth  triumphant.  God  is  within  the  shadow  "keeping 
watch  above  His  own." 

The  sorrowful  story  of  Judas  Iscariot's  tragic  fall 
from  a  great  opportunity  has  written  itself  very  deeply 
into  literature.  George  Eliot's  Romola  came  forth 
from  the  Gospel  pages  where  the  story  of  Judas  is 
written.  The  story  centers  In  Tito,  brilliant,  charm- 
ing, but  false — a  man  who,  despite  his  talents  and  his 
opportunities,  turned  more  and  more  to  the  weak  and 
beggarly  elements  of  life,  until  moral  degradation  re- 
sulted. Tito  is  an  example,  as  Judas  is,  of  "that  in- 
exorable law  of  human  souls,  that  we  prepare 
ourselves  for  sudden  deeds  by  the  reiterated  choice  of 
good  or  evil  that  gradually  determines  character." 

It  is  probable  that  the  melancholy  story  of  Judas, 
the  conflict  between  good  and  evil,  the  fatality  of  in- 
dulgence, the  gradual  deterioration  in  moral  tone,  gave 
to  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  his  cue  for  Dr.  Jekyl  and 


216     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Mr.  Hyde.  Men  must  give  good  the  upper  hand, 
they  must  allow  no  weakening  of  their  moral  fibre  by 
indulgence,  they  must  win  daily  victories  by  choice — 
victories  which  ultimately  establish  the  character 
in  righteousness.  English  writers,  and  most  of  all, 
writers  of  fiction,  have  told  this  story  over  and  over 
again.  j 

The  so-called  problem  stories  of  English  fiction  are, 
many  of  them,  deeply  imbedded  in  the  Bible.  If  the 
writers  of  these  stories  fail  at  times  to  find  the  door 
of  hope  that  opens  out  of  the  problems  of  life — like 
poor  Hetty  Sorrel  in  Adam  Bede — it  is  because  they 
do  not  read  far  enough  into  the  words  which  as  Jesus 
said  are  spirit  and  life.  The  trouble  with  George 
Eliot  was  that  she  had  never  discovered  the  cross. 
She  could  paint  the  reality  of  sin,  but  she  did  not 
know  the  remedy.  She  could  picture  one  of  her  char- 
acters rushing  through  the  wood  '*to  put  a  wide  space 
between  him  and  his  sin,"  but  she  could  not  tell  about 
the  arms  of  the  Savior  that  were  open  to  receive  the 
sinner.  So  also  with  The  Scarlet  Letter.  Dimmesdale 
is  driven  by  the  sharp  pain  of  the  symbol  on  his  breast 
to  make  confession,  but  Hawthorne's  only  refuge 
from  the  dilemma  was  death.  Nevertheless  such 
strange  failures  to  follow  the  Scripture  to  the  end  are 
not  wholly  unfortunate.  They  spur  the  world's  heart 
to  the  venture  of  faith.  Such  a  story  as  Hawthorne's 
Scarlet  Letter,  for  example,  has  given  an  emphasis 
to  the  spiritual  teaching  about  the  wages  of  sin,  the 
inevitable  harvest  of  evil-sowing,  the  certain  exposure 
of  wrong-doing,  and  the  need  of  inward  cleansing 
through  the  blood  of  redemption,  such  as  the  world 
can  never  forget. 


XVII 

THE  BIBLE  IN   ENGLISH   POETRY 

''Look  forth! — that  Stream  behold, 
That  Stream  upon  whose  bosom  we  have  passed.'* 

Wordsworth. 

IN  the  case  of  EngHsh  poetry  the  stream  of  Biblical 
influence  has  flowed  deep  and  strong.  Our 
poetry  indeed  is  the  most  Christian  part  of  our 
English  literature,  and  is  more  deeply  impregnated 
than  any  other  with  the  spiritual  messages  of  the 
Word  of  God.  The  poet  of  all  writers  has  caught  the 
soul  refrain  of  the  Bible  most  clearly,  and  has  echoed 
its  music  most  impressively  in  the  ears  of  the  world. 

There  are  two  obvious  reasons  why  our  poets  in- 
cline with  such  evident  sympathy  to  the  Scripture. 
The  Bible  is  itself  in  many  parts  poetical,  while  much 
of  its  prose  is  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  poetry.  This 
in  itself  constitutes  a  strong  appeal  to  every  poet's 
heart.  It  is  not  surprising  then  that  our  English  poets 
early  and  late  have  discovered  in  the  Bible  a  kinship 
of  feeling  and  expression  that  has  won  for  it  their 
sincere  appreciation.  From  the  early  English  scop, 
the  minstrel  and  story-teller,  English  poets  have  loved 
to  adorn  their  lines  with  Biblical  illustrations,  inci- 
dents, types  and  formulae  of  expression. 

It  is,  however,  when  we  remember  the  peculiar 
character  of  Biblical  poetry  that  we  begin  to  appreci- 

217 


218     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

ate  the  full  force  of  the  individual  appeal  of  the 
Scripture  to  the  poet.  Biblical  poetry  is  of  the 
profoundest  kind — the  kind  that  moves  most  power- 
fully upon  the  soul.  There  is  nothing  merely  casual 
or  incidental  in  the  poetry  of  the  Bible.  It  may  have 
its  local  color  and  its  concrete  objectivity;  neverthe- 
less its  true  object  is  ever  in  the  region  of  the  soul's 
life  and  feeling.  Watts-Dunton  calls  Hebrew  poetry 
the  "Great  Lyric."  "There  is  nothing  in  Pindar,  or 
indeed  elsewhere  in  Greek  poetry,  like  the  rapturous 
song,  combining  unconscious  power  with  unconscious 
grace,  which  we  have  called  the  Great  Lyric."  In  the 
nature  of  the  case  it  has  been  quite  impossible  for 
English  poets  to  remain  indifferent  to  the  majestic  ap- 
peal of  the  lyric  and  epic  poetry  of  the  Hebrew. 

The  poet's  own  susceptibility  of  course  is  the  com- 
panion factor  that  establishes  for  him  an  intimate 
relationship  with  the  Bible.  By  this  we  mean  not 
alone  his  musical  sensibility,  but  much  more — we 
mean  the  total  instinct  of  his  mind  for  all  that  is 
truly  imaginative  and  spiritual  in  the  deepest  way. 
The  very  mystery  and  idealism  of  the  Bible,  its 
imagery,  its  optimism,  its  romance,  its  constant  lift  of 
thought  upwards  to  the  skies — all  this  constitutes  the 
natural  pabulum  of  the  poet's  mind.^  The  poet  is  by 
constitution  spiritually-minded.  His  thoughts  cling  to 
the  moral  frame  of  things.  He  is  perforce  a  man  of 
vision,  and  his  soul  is  always  listening  for  some  true 
voice.  Shelley  declared  that  "prophecy  is  an  attribute 
of  poetry."  "Every  writer  is  an  evangelist  of  some 
sort."    We  do  not  expect  to  find  theology  as  an  articu- 

^  See  Vocal  and  Literary  Interpretation  of  the  Bible,  Prof. 
S.  S.  Curry.    Chapter  IX  on  "The  Lyric  Spirit." 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  POETRY  219 

lated  system  in  poetry — the  poets  are  interpreters 
rather  than  theologians.  They  must  not  be  required  to 
be  orthodox  Hke  the  theologians;  yet  often  we  are 
aware  that  they  follow  an  unerring  instinct.  For  the 
most  part  our  poets  have  taken  their  philosophy  of 
life  from  the  Scripture.  English  poetry  is  profoundly 
Christian;  its  spirit  is  steeped  in  the  Bible.  There  is 
no  major  teaching  of  the  Bible  that  has  not  been 
carried  over  in  scores  of  ways  into  English  poetry. 
Thus  it  has  come  to  pass  that  our  poets  are  often  true 
leaders  in  the  spirit,  and  teachers  of  what  is  found 
in  the  life  of  the  spirit. 

No  censorship  that  men  could  devise  would  be 
minute  enough  to  take  the  Bible  out  of  English  poetry. 
Its  thought  and  language  are  woven  into  the  very 
texture  of  our  poetic  literature.  It  is  rare  indeed  to 
find  a  poet  of  English  name  who  is  careless  of  "the 
magic  and  haunting  charm"  of  the  Bible.  To  the  poet 
the  language  of  the  Bible  lives  in  the  heart  like  music 
that  never  dies  away:  its  pictures  fill  his  mind:  its 
far  cry  of  the  soul  sounds  far  within  him.  There  are 
certain  major  poems  of  our  language,  like  Browning's 
"Saul"  and  Tennyson's  "In  Memoriam,"  that  stand  as 
monuments  to  the  towering  strength  of  the  Bible  in 
constructive  minds.  Such  poems  could  never  have 
been  written  without  the  impulse  supplied  by  the  Bible 
— more  than  this,  without  the  literary  material  fur- 
nished by  it.  These  are  examples  only  of  scores  of 
English  poems  that  flow  in  the  sweet  cadence  of  the 
Word  of  God. 

The  manner  of  the  poets  in  the  use  of  the  Bible  is 
marked  by  great  variety.  Often  it  is  a  mere  refer- 
ence, as  when  Browning  writes — 


220     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATtJItE 

"the  sight 
Of  a  sweepy  garment,  vast  and  white, 
With  a  hem  that  I  could  recognize." 

Whittier's  familiar  lines  furnish  a  beautiful  example 
of  Biblical  reference — 

"The  healing  of  His  seamless  dress 

Is  by  our  beds  of  pain; 
We  touch  Him  in  life's  throng  and  press, 
And  we  are  whole  again." 

Yet  the  poet  cannot  make  even  a  slight  reference  to 
the  Bible  without  giving  it  his  ov^n  interpretative 
touch.  The  remotest  incident  of  Scripture  he  may- 
clothe  v^rith  garments  of  his  own  and  breathe  into  it 
the  breath  of  life.  We  see  again  the  figure  of  the 
Canaanitish  captain  Sisera  in  his  unequal  contest  with 
the  stars,  in  Thomas  Hardy's  lines  about  Napoleon — 

"I  have  been  subdued, 
But  by  the  elements  and  them  alone. 
.Not  Russia,  but  God's  sky  has  conquered  me." 

Isaiah  takes  up  his  parable  against  the  King  of  Baby- 
lon (Chapter  14)  saying — "Is  this  the  man  that  made 
the  earth  to  tremble,  that  did  shake  kingdoms  ?"  And 
Byron  takes  up  the  same  parable  against  Napoleon — 

"Is  this  the  man  of  thousand  thrones. 
Who  strewed  the  earth  with  hostile  bones  P"^ 

There  is  scarcely  a  poet  worth  knowing  in  all  the 
English  galaxy  whose  poems  are  not  interiarded  thus 
with  Biblical  references.  Tennyson  has  hundreds  of 
references.  Wordsworth,  the  Brownings,  Matthew 
Arnold,  Kipling  and  many  others  have  turned  often 

2  "Ode  to  Napoleon." 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  POETRY         221 

to  the  Scripture  for  illustration.  As  Mr.  Chapman 
has  said,  "Practically  all  great  poetry  deals  with  re- 
ligion."^ It  matters  not  whether  the  poet  be  in  the 
fullest  sense  a  believer  or  not — he  cannot  divest  him- 
self of  religious  questions.  Nor  can  he  write  long 
without  drawing  water  from  the  deepest  well  of  re- 
ligion ever  opened  to  men — the  Holy  Bible.  The  very 
language  of  the  Scripture  indeed  often  flows  uncon- 
sciously from  his  pen,  for  he  more  than  other  men 
recognizes  in  it  the  language  of  sincerity  and  power. 
An  excellent  example  of  this  natural  use  of  Scrip- 
ture is  seen  in  Matthew  Arnold,  whose  mind  turns 
easily  to  Scriptural  forms.  In  "Rugby  Chapel,"  he 
writes, 

"Servants  of  God — or  sons 

Shall  I  not  call  you  ?  because 

Not  as  servants  ye  knew 

Your  Father's  innermost  mind, 

His,  who  unwilling  sees 

One  of  his  little  ones  lost." 

There  is  no  apparent  effort  of  the  poet  thus  in  re- 
ferring twice  in  these  few  lines  to  the  Bible. 

The  indebtedness  of  the  poets  to  the  Bible  is  far 
deeper  than  that  of  mere  reference  and  allusion.  Not 
infrequently,  like  writers  of  fiction,  they  turn  to  the 
Bible  for  their  themes,  as  well  as  for  something  at 
least  of  their  dramatic  action.  Here  as  always  they 
must  be  free  to  exercise  their  poetic  license,  and  there- 
fore they  will  not  be  bound  by  detail.  Nevertheless 
they  are  often  glad  to  accept  from  the  Scripture  their 
main  thought,  or  incident :  nor  are  they  always  careful 
to  conceal  the  source  of  their  material.    Thus  Tenny- 

^  English  Literature  in  Account  with  Religion,  p.  464, 


222     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

son  tells  the  story  of  an  almost  forgotten  Old  Testa- 
ment mother  in  his  "Rizpah";*  Milton,  as  we  have 
seen,  enshrines  a  Biblical  story  in  his  "Samson  Agon- 
istes" ;  and  Browning  does  not  hesitate  to  make  use  of 
Bible  characters  and  incidents  in  a  number  of  his 
poems,  such  as  "Saul,"  "An  Epistle,"  "A  Death  in  the 
Desert."  In  the  case  of  Browning  the  Scripture  ap- 
parently suggests  to  him  at  times  a  point  of  view. 
Hence  his  use  of  "Bells  and  Pomegranates,"  and 
"Pisgah-Lights"  as  titles. 

More  than  all,  however,  it  is  just  the  innate  spiritu- 
ality of  the  poets  that  takes  them  so  often  to  the  Bible. 
They  are  for  the  most  part  reverent  men,  and  like 
Moses  in  the  mount,  they  turn  aside  to  see  the  bush 
that  burns  with  fire — and  often  they  find  it  "aflame 
with  God."  They  are  irresistibly  concerned  with  the 
problems  of  the  soul  and  of  destiny;  hence  they  are 
compelled  to  feed  upon  the  Word  of  God,  whether 
they  be  orthodox  or  otherwise.  In  the  remaining 
chapters  of  this  volume  we  shall  refer  to  the  presence 
of  Biblical  doctrine  and  Biblical  idealism  in  English 
literature.  Here  indeed  lie  the  deepest  roots  of  our 
best  English  poetry.  It  is  in  reality  Biblical  teaching, 
with  the  high  optimism  and  vision  of  the  Bible,  it  is 
this  most  of  all  that  represents  the  truest  debt  of  the 
poets  to  the  Holy  Scripture,  and  makes  them  in  a  real 
way  teachers  "of  those  who  would  live  in  the  spirit." 

Out  of  the  great  number  of  poets  who  have 
drawn  copious  supplies  from  the  Bible,  Browning  and 
Tennyson  deserve  special  attention,  together  with 
Longfellow  and  Whittier. 

A  volume  of  considerable  size  has  been  written  on 

*  II  Samuel  21. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  POETRY  223 

The  Bible  in  Browning.^  A  dozen  pages  of  the  ap- 
pendix are  required  merely  to  list  the  Biblical  quota- 
tions and  allusions  in  "The  Ring  and  the  Book."  The 
author  holds  that  no  modern  poet  has  shown  such  in- 
timate acquaintance  with  the  Bible.  "His  writings 
are  thoroughly  interpenetrated  by  its  spirit,  and  in 
many  of  his  poems  a  Scriptural  quotation  or  allusion 
may  be  found  on  almost  every  page.'*  Browning  is 
peculiar  in  his  tendency  to  cling  often  to  certain 
Scriptural  phrases  which  appeal  to  his  musical  sen- 
sibility. Thus  Hezekiah's  words  of  reverence — "I  will 
go  softly  all  my  years" — are  quoted  four  times  in 
"The  Ring  and  the  Book,"  once  in  this  modified 
form — 

"And  he'll  go  duly  docile  all  his  days." 

Frequently  Browning  crowds  his  lines  with  Scriptural 
thought  as  in  this  passage  from  "By  the  Fireside" — 

"Think,  when  our  one  soul  understands 
The  great  Word  which  makes  all  things  new, 
When  earth  breaks  up  and  heaven  expands, 
How  will  the  change  strike  me  and  you, 
In  the  house  not  made  with  hands  ?" 

At  times  he  does  not  hesitate  to  paraphrase  the  Scrip- 
ture, proving  how  adaptable  even  the  prose  of  the 
Bible  is  to  the  uses  of  the  poet.  Read,  for  example, 
Exodus  24:  9-1 1,  and  then  read  Browning  in  "One 
Word  More"— 

"Proves  she  as  the  paved  work  of  a  sapphire 
Seen  by  Moses  when  he  climbed  the  mountain? 
Moses,  Aaron,  Nadab  and  Abihu 
Climbed  and  saw  the  very  God,  the  Highest, 

^By  Minnie  Gresham  Machen. 


224     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Stand  upon  the  paved  work  of  a  sapphire. 

Like  the  bodied  heaven  in  his  clearness 

Shone  the  stone,  the  sapphire  of  that  paved  work, 

When  they  ate  and  drank  and  saw  God  also !" 

The  poet  might  almost  be  accused  of  Biblical  plagiar- 
ism! 

Browning  is  quite  as  apt  as  any  other  poet  in  turn- 
ing remote  Biblical  incidents  to  his  use,  as  in  this — 

"no  Rahab-thread, 
For  blushing  token  of  the  spy's  success." 

But  he  delights  especially  in  his  lines  to  linger  with 
Scriptural  thought,  and  to  draw  out  at  some  length 
his  use  of  the  sacred  language,  as  in  this — 

"When  He  who  trod. 
Very  man  and  very  God, 
This  earth  in  weakness,  shame  and  pain. 
Dying  the  death  whose  signs  remain 
Up  yonder  on  the  accursed  tree, — 
Shall  come  again,  no  more  to  be 
Of  captivity  the  thrall. 
But  the  one  God,  All  in  all. 
King  of  kings.  Lord  of  Lords, 
As  his  servant  John  received  the  words, 
*I  died  and  live  f orevermore !' " 

"The  Ring  and  the  Book,"  with  its  more  than  fivei 
hundred  distinct  allusions,  is  probably  the  most  Bibli- 
cal poem  in  our  language.  Twenty-eight  books  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  twenty-five  of  the  New  Testament 
contribute  to  it.  One  who  does  not  know  his  Bible 
must  flounder  in  distress  in  reading  this  famous  poem. 
It  is  almost  an  exercise  in  Bible  study.  What,  for 
instance,  can  one  do  with  lines  such  as  these  unless  he 
knows  well  his  Old  Testament  narrative? 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  POETRY         225 

"And  he  went  up 
And  lay  upon  the  corpse,  dead  on  the  couch, 
And  put  his  mouth  upon  its  mouth,  his  eyes 
Upon  its  eyes,  his  hands  upon  its  hands, 
And  stretched  him  on  the  flesh;  the  flesh  waxed  warm: 
And  he  returned,  walked  to  and  fro  the  house, 
And  went  up,  stretched  him  on  the  flesh  again, 
And  the  eyes  opened." 

Here  the  poet  has  missed  no  detail  of  the  Biblical  ac- 
count except  that  "the  child  sneezed  seven  times." 
There  are  many  slight  references  which  the  poet 
makes  in  passing  which  must  prove  very  trying  to  one 
unfamiliar  with  Biblical  incident,  as  in  this  instance — 

"So  a  fool 
Once  touched  the  ark — poor  Uzzah  that  I  am!" 

Browning's  Christological  poems  are  referred  to 
later  in  this  chapter,  and  his  use  of  Biblical  doctrine  is 
mentioned  in  the  succeeding  chapter.  No  English 
poet  has  drunk  more  deeply  at  the  fountain  of  the 
Word,  and  none  has  profited  more  by  what  he  has  ob- 
tained there.  If  it  be  true  that  God  "has  a  few  of  us 
whom  He  whispers  in  the  ear,"  Browning  is  certainly 
one  of  the  few,  and  his  being  so  is  due  in  part  to  the 
fact  that  he  held  always  deep  conversance  with  the 
Word  of  God.  It  does  not  much  concern  us  to  know 
what  was  his  individual  creed — there  is  one  thing  to 
which  his  poems  bear  enduring  witness,  the  permanent 
and  inexpressible  value  of  the  Bible  to  the  souls  of 
men.  No  man  of  Browning's  depth  of  reason  and  cul- 
ture could  have  allowed  himself  to  lean  so  heavily  upon 
the  Bible  if  he  had  not  believed  in  its  mission  and  mes- 
sage. To  him  it  was  the  Book  of  Life,  and  knowing 
it  as  he  did,  he  could  not  do  otherwise  than  write  its 


226     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

lessons  out  for  men  in  scores  and  hundreds  of  his 
lines.  He  has  in  truth  so  interwoven  the  thought  and 
language  of  Scripture  in  his  poems,  that  much  of  it 
could  be  recovered  from  his  pages  if  the  original  were 
lost. 

Tennyson  is  only  second  to  Browning  in  his  use  of 
the  Bible.  Dr.  van  Dyke's  estimate  of  four  hundred 
or  more  Biblical  allusions  in  Tennyson  is  far  too  low. 
He  is  less  given  than  Browning  to  quotation  and  para- 
phrase :  nevertheless  he  is  quite  as  much  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  Book.  Some  of  his  poems  are  pro- 
foundly Biblical  in  their  tone.  This  is  especially  true 
of  "In  Memoriam"  and  the  "Idylls."  He  is  here 
moving  on  Biblical  ground,  and  dealing  with  Biblical 
themes.  Tennyson  is  acutely  sensitive  to  the  charm 
and  cadence  of  the  Scripture,  and  we  can  often  detect 
its  music  in  his  lines.  In  him  too  we  find,  as  in 
Browning,  the  expression  in  poetic  form  of  our  great 
human  experiences,  our  spiritual  fears  and  problems, 
together  with  the  affirmation  of  Christian  thinking 
upon  subjects  of  the  souFs  life  and  destiny.  As  we 
shall  see  later,  he  deals  constantly  with  such  subjects 
as  faith,  immortality,  prayer  and  sin. 

Tennyson  turned  to  the  Bible  naturally:  he  felt  the 
spell  of  its  poetry.  But  more  than  this,  he  felt  the 
reality  of  its  touch  upon  life  and  its  problems,  and 
therefore  he  did  not  fear  to  carry  over  into  his  poems 
the  ideals  of  the  Bible.  Not  a  few  of  his  poems  thus 
have  their  origin  directly  in  the  Bible.  As  Mr.  Chap- 
man tells  us — "  The  Two  Voices'  and  'St.  Simeon 
Stylites'  are  admirable  paraphrases  in  modern  lan- 
guage of  the  old  cry  of  St.  Paul  conscious'of  the  war 
in  his  members.     The  Vision  of  Sin'  is  a  replica  of 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  POETRY  227 

the  Scriptural  'mystery  of  iniquity.*  'Aylmer's  Field/ 
'Locksley  Hall,'  and  'Maud'  all  remind  us  of  the 
miserable  and  often  suicidal  fraud  perpetrated  by  him 
who  would  appraise  his  own  life  or  that  of  another 
in  terms  of  material  possessions."® 

He  is  not  less  apt  than  Browning  at  times  in  weav- 
ing together  several  Scriptural  allusions  in  a  few  lines. 
A  good  example  of  this  is  found  in  Enoch  Arden's 
words  to  his  wife — 

"Cast  all  your  cares  on  God:  that  anchor  holds. 
Is  He  not  yonder  in  the  uttermost 
Parts  of  the  morning?    If  I  flee  to  these 
Can  I  go  from  Him  ?    And  the  sea  is  His, 
The  sea  is  His :  He  made  it." 

At  other  times  a  single  line  of  Biblical  allusion  Is  so 
skilfully  used  as  to  speak  volumes,  as  in  "Locksley 
Hall,  Sixty  Years  After"— 

"Follow  Light  and  do  the  Right — for  man  can  half  control  his 

doom — 
Till  you  see  the  deathless  angel  seated  in  the  vacant  tomb." 

It  is  unnecessary  for  the  poet  to  affirm  In  terms  of  a 
creed  his  belief  in  resurrection:  this  one  line  says  all 
that  he  needs  to  say. 

Many  Bible  characters  reappear  In  Tennyson's 
poems,  from  Adam  and  Eve  to  Mary  and  Lazarus. 
The  story  of  Jephthah's  daughter  is  repeated  in  "The 
Dream  of  Fair  Women,"  while  in  "Rizpah"  the  story 
of  the  Hebrew  mother  who  watched  over  the  bodies 
of  her  slain  sons  Is  changed  to  the  story  of  an  English 
mother  whose  son  was  executed  for  robbery.  Many 
other  familiar  Bible  personages  and  scenes — the  Queen 

^English  Literature  in  Account  with  Religion,  pp.  373,  374. 


228     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

of  Sheba,  Vashti,  Miriam,  Jael,  Lot's  wife,  Jonah's 
gourd,  the  Tower  of  Babel — return  to  us  in  Tenny- 
son's poems/ 

Dr.  van  Dyke  quotes  the  opinion  of  Professor 
Plumptre  who  holds  that  "the  most  suggestive  of  all 
commentaries"  on  Ecclesiastes,  the  book  which  has 
proved  disconcerting  to  not  a  few  'Bible  readers,  is 
found  in  Tennyson's  poems,  "The  Vision  of  Sin," 
'The  Palace  of  Art"  and  "The  Two  Voices."  The 
opening  lines  of  the  last-named  poem — 

"A  still  small  voice  spake  unto  me, 
Thou  art  so  full  of  misery, 
Were  it  not  better  not  to  be," — 

are  the  echo  of  "Vanity  of  vanities,  saith  the  preacher, 
all  is  vanity."  The  warfare  in  the  members  is  stated 
in  these  words — 

"He  knows  a  baseness  in  his  blood 
At  such  strange  war  with  something  good, 
He  may  not  do  the  thing  he  would." 

The  last  line  is  only  a  variation  of  the  apostle  Paul — 
"For  what  I  would,  that  do  I  not"  (Romans  7:  15). 
To  this  soul  torn  by  despair  relief  comes  with  the  open 
window  on  the  Sabbath  morn,  when — 

"The  sweet  church  bells  began  to  peal." 

■^  The  Poetry  of  Tennyson,  by  Henry  van  Dyke.  Chapter 
on  "The  Bible  in  Tennyson."  In  the  opinion  of  Dr.  van 
Dyke  the  most  beautiful  of  all  Tennyson's  New  Testament 
references  is  his  description  in  "In  Memoriam"  of  the  reunion 
between  Mary  and  Lazarus — 

"When  Lazarus  left  his  charnel-cave 
And  home  to  Mary's  house  return'd. 
Was  this  demanded, — if  he  yearn'd 
To  hear  her  weeping  by  his  grave?" 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  POETRY  229 

Then— 

"My  frozen  heart  began  to  beat 
Remembering  its  ancient  heat." 
And— 

"The  dull  and  bitter  voice  was  gone." 

Then  another  voice  speaks,  "Rejoice,  rejoice!"  To 
many  a  "frozen  heart"  Tennyson's  Scriptural  message 
about  the  "hidden  hope,"  and  the  power  that  breaks 
"like  the  rainbow^  from  the  shower,"  has  bi  ought  sweet 
comfort  in  time  of  stress.  A  very  happy  use  is  made 
in  "The  Two  Voices"  of  the  patience  of  Stephen  in 
his  persecution — 

"He  heeded  not  reviling  tones, 
Nor  sold  his  heart  to  idle  moans, 
Tho*  cursed  and  scorn'd,  and  bruised  with  stones. 
«  ♦  ♦  %  * 

But  looking  upward,  full  of  grace, 
He  pray'd,  and  from  a  happy  place 
God's  glory  smote  him  on  the  face." 

"The  Palace  of  Art"  is  Tennyson's  version  of  the 
Lord's  parable  of  the  man  who  said  to  his  soul,  "Take 
thine  ease,  eat,  drink  and  be  merry,"  of  whom  at 
length  God  required  the  surrender  of  his  soul — 

*1  built  my  soul  a  lordly  pleasure-house, 
Wherein  at  ease  for  aye  to  dwell. 
I  said,  O  soul,  make  merry  and  carouse, 
Dear  soul,  for  all  is  well." 

The  God-like  isolation  seemed  perfect  gain,  but  even 
here  "the  riddle  of  the  painful  earth"  pressed  in,  and 
the  soul  could  not  be  rid  of  an  inward  distress — 

"The  airy  hand  confusion  wrought. 

Wrote  *Mene,  mene,*  and  divided  quite 
The  Kingdom  of  her  thought." 


230     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

It  is  only  when — 

"Far  off  she  seemM  to  hear  the  dully  sound 
Of  human  footsteps  fall" — 

that  the  soul  begins  to  rouse  herself  to  saner  thought, 
and  at  length,  after  throwing  her  royal  robes  away — 

"  'Make  me  a  cottage  in  the  vale,'  she  said, 
'Where  I  may  mourn  and  pray.' " 

The  teaching  of  'The  Palace  of  Art"  is  that  earth 
cannot  contribute  ultimate  peace  to  the  soul — it  is  the 
gift  of  God.  However  magnificent  one's  isolation 
from  the  world  in  ease  and  splendor,  there  can  be  no 
purging  of  guilt  apart  from  God,  and  no  escape  from 
that  call  to  the  soul  which  is  sure  to  come — "Thou 
fool,  this  night  thy  soul  shall  be  required  of  thee :  then 
whose  shall  those  things  be,  which  thou  hast  pro- 
vided?" One  may  write  the  conclusion  of  the  Lord's 
parable  as  a  comment  at  the  close  of  "The  Palace  of 
Art" — "So  is  he  that  layeth  up  treasure  for  himself, 
and  is  not  rich  toward  God."     (Luke  12:  21.) 

Mr.  Chapman  suggests  that  Tennyson's  poem, 
"Aylmer's  Field,"  would  "admirably  serve  the  purpose 
of  a  college  examination  in  ability  to  recognize  and 
verify  allusions  to  Scripture."  "The  poem  is  so  com- 
pact of  Biblical  reference,  phrase,  and  feeling  as  to 
make  illustration  difficult  except  one  quote  the 
whole.  "^  We  very  much  fear  indeed  that  the  average 
junior  or  senior  would  have  difficulty  in  identifying 
the  many  allusions  of  this  Scriptural  poem. 

No  poet  is  more  apt  than  Tennyson  In  adapting 
phrases,   even   simple  words,  of   Scripture  to  poetic 

8  English  Literature  in  Account  with  Religion,  p.  367. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  POETRY  231 

uses.  He  speaks  of  "Goliathizing"  and  "Molochiz- 
ing,"  of  the  "left-hand  thief,"  of  "a  whole  Peter's 
sheet,"  of  "grapes  of  Eshcol  hugeness,"  of  "a  Jacob's 
ladder,"  of  "Peter's  rock,"  of  "Arimathean  Joseph," 
of  "power  of  the  keys."  How  much  is  said  in  the 
lines — 

"Persecute  the  Lord 
And  play  the  Saul  that  never  will  be  Paul.** 

And  in  these  from  "Harold" — 

"Mock-King,  I  am  the  messenger  of  God, 
His  Norman  Daniel !  Mene,  Mene,  Tekel." 

And  in  these  from  "Queen  Mary** — 

"Remember  how  God  made  the  fierce  fire  seem 
To  those  three  children  like  a  pleasant  dew." 

And  in  these  also — 

"Since  your  Herod's  death 
How  oft  hath  Peter  knocked  at  Mary's  gate.** 

And  in  these  from  "The  Holy  Grail"— 

"Galahad,  when  he  heard  of  Merlin's  doom, 
Cried,  *H  I  lose  myself,  I  save  myself.*" 

And  in  these  supremely  beautiful  lines  from  "In 
Memoriam" — 

"  O  living  will  that  shalt  endure 

When  all  that  seems  shall  suffer  shock, 
Rise  in  the  spiritual  rock. 
Flow  through  our  deeds  and  make  them  pure." 

In  examples  such  as  these  we  see  how  susceptible  is 
a  poet's  heart  to  the  lightest  touch  of  Holy  Scripture. 
We  observe  also  how  rich  and  fine  is  his  gift  to  men 
of  that  sweetness  of  the  Word  that  is  "sweeter  also 
than  honey  and  the  droppings  of  the  honey-comb." 


232     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

American  poets,  like  their  brethren  across  the  sea, 
are  indebted  to  the  Bible  for  inspiration  in  their 
art.  The  deepest,  truest  strain  in  American  poetry  is 
traceable  in  a  direct  line  to  Biblical  influence.  The 
"perpetual  conversance  with  deep  things  and  with  the 
Bible"  which  Matthew  Arnold  attributes  to  the  Puri- 
tans, was  the  early  characteristic  of  New  England  life. 
Charles  Dudley  Warner  has  drawn  for  us  a  picture  of 
the  early  life  of  New  England ; — ''When  I  consider  the 
narrow  limitations  of  the  Pilgrim  households,  the 
absence  of  luxury,  the  presence  of  danger  and  hard- 
ship, the  harsh  laws — only  less  severe  than  the  con- 
temporary laws  of  England  and  Virginia — the  weary 
drudgery,  the  few  pleasures,  the  curb  upon  the  ex- 
pression of  emotion  and  of  tenderness,  the  ascetic  re- 
pression of  worldly  thought,  the  absence  of  poetry  in 
the  routine  occupations  and  conditions,  I  can  feel  what 
the  Bible  must  have  been  to  them.  It  was  an  open 
door  into  a  world  where  emotion  is  expressed,  where 
imagination  can  range,  where  love  and  longing  find  a 
language,  where  imagery  is  given  to  every  noble  and 
suppressed  passion  of  the  soul,  where  every  aspiration 
finds  wings.  It  was  history,  or  as  Thucydides  said, 
philosophy,  teaching  by  example ;  it  was  the  romance 
of  real  life;  it  was  entertainment  unfailing;  the  won- 
der-book of  childhood,  the  volume  of  sweet  sentiment 
to  the  shy  maiden,  the  sword  to  the  soldier,  the  inciter 
of  the  youth  to  heroic  enduring  of  hardness ;  it  was 
the  refuge  of  the  aged  in  failing  activity."^  Out  of 
such  a  soil  sown  deep  with  spiritual  seed  sprang  the 
flower  of  New  England  poetry. 

It  must  suffice  to  refer  in  particular  to  Whittier  and 
«  The  Relation  of  Literature  to  Life,  pp.  35,  36. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  POETRY  233 

Longfellow.  One  who  will  take  pains  to  examine 
Whittier's  poems,  looking  for  traces  of  Biblical  in- 
fluence, will  find  it  necessary  to  leave  pencil-marks 
upon  many  lines  and  paragraphs.  "The  Bible,"  says 
Stedman,  "was  rarely  absent  from  his  verse,  and  its 
spirit  never."   He  held  that  all  the  sages  said — 

"Is  in  the  Book  our  mothers  read." 

"Our  Master"  is  almost  a  replica  of  Scripture.     It 
may  be  studied  in  several  points  of  view : — 
First,  for  its  suggestive  use  of  Biblical  incident,  as  in 
the  lines — 

"Who  know  with  John  his  smile  of  love, 
With  Peter  his  rebuke." 

Second,  for  its  interpretation  of  Biblical  fact  into  life 
and  faith,  as  in  this  instance — 

"And  faith  has  still  its  Olivet 
And  love  its  Galilee." 

Third,   for  its  adaptation  of   Christian  doctrine,   as 
here — 

"Deep  strike  thy  roots,  O  heavenly  Vine." 

Fourth,  for  its  recognition  of  the  present  Christ,  as  in 
the  well-loved  lines —    | 

"We  may  not  climb  the  heavenly  steeps, 
To  bring  the  Lord  Christ  down." 

Fifth,  for  its  lofty  Christian  aspiration,  as  in  this — 

"To  thee  our  full  humanity, 
Its  joys  and  pains  belong." 

In  such  a'  poem  as  this  it  is  not  alone  the  skilful 
use   of   the   language   of   Scripture   that   strikes   the 


234     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

reader — it  is  the  rhythm  of  Scriptural  thought  and 
feeUng  that  runs  like  an  undercurrent  of  music 
throughout  the  poem.  It  is  this  that  constitutes  its 
real  life  and  character  as  a  poem. 

Whittier,  like  many  other  poets,  loves  to  test  our 
knowledge  of  incidental  things  in  the  Bible — thus: — 

"The  eye  may  well  be  glad  that  looks 
Where  Pharpar's  fountains  rise  and  fall, 
But  he  who  sees  his  native  brooks 
Laugh  in  the  sun  has  seen  them  all." 

The  poems  of  Longfellow  may  well  be  studied  for 
their  Scriptural  allusions.  We  can  refer  here  only  to 
"Evangeline'*  and  to  one  particular  feature  of  the 
poet's  use  of  the  Bible,  his  skilful  Scriptural  similes. 
The  change  of  seasons  is  described,  when — 

"Wrestled  the  trees  of  the  forest,  as  Jacob  of  old  with  the 
angel." 

Evangeline  saw  the  moon  pass  forth  from  the  folds  of 
a  cloud  with  a  star  following — 

"As  out  of  Abraham's  tent  young  Ishmael  wandered  with 
Hagar." 

In  their  devotions  the  souls  of  the  people  of  Grand- 
Pre— 

"Rose  on  the  ardor  of  prayer,  like  Elijah  ascending  to  heaven." 

The  setting  of  the  sun  reminds  the  poet  of  Moses 
coming  down  from  the  mountain — 

"Down  sank  the  great  red  sun,  and  in  golden,  glimmering 
vapors 
Veiled  the  light  of  his  face,  like  the  prophet  descending  from 
Sinai." 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  POETRY  235 

We  have  now  to  take  note  of  an  outstanding  fea- 
ture of  English  poetry  in  its  relation  to  the  Bible,  and 
this  is  its  recognition  of  the  presence  of  Christ.  The 
Christology  of  our  English  poets  is  a  stupendous  argu- 
ment, both  for  the  vitality  of  the  Book,  and  for  the 
verity  of  the  Christ.  If  one  were  to  set  himself  the 
task  of  following  the  footsteps  of  the  poets  in  their 
teachings  about  Christ,  he  would  find  much  that  could 
with  difficulty  be  compressed  within  the  compass  of 
the  creeds.  Nevertheless  he  would  discover  that  the 
poets  seldom  lose  sight  of  the  Great  Figure  in  the 
way.  The  poets  are  not  often  doubters  of  the 
essential  truth  of  Christ  and  Christianity,  and  often 
their  interpretation  of  Scripture  is  like  the  breaking 
out  of  light  or  the  sudden  opening  of  doors.  The 
moral  dynamic  of  Jesus  appeals  to  them:  His  lofty 
idealism  convinces  them.  They  recognize  in  Jesus  the 
profound  and  uncomprehended  answer  to  many  things 
of  which  they  have  dreamed  in  their  own  spirits. 
There  are  indeed  poets  "whose  reed  has  a  short  gamut, 
and  plays  but  two  notes.  Mars  and  Eros,  hopeless 
death  and  lawless  love."  But  these  are  exceptions  to 
the  rule.  The  prevailing  mood  with  the  poets  is  that 
of  spiritual  wonder,  and  imagination — the  wonder  and 
imagination  that  are  akin  to  faith.  Their  faith  is  large 
and  reverent — it  is  gifted  with  the  power  of  flight. 
To  the  poet  the  distance  is  not  far  to  God — He  is 
near,  very  near — 

**Qoser  is  He  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands  and  feet." 

There  is  a  remarkable  passage  in  the  prose  writings 
of  the  southern  poet  Sidney  Lanier  which  well  ex- 
presses the  poet's  sense  of  God's  nearness — 


236     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

"I  fled  in  tears  from  the  men's  ungodly  quarrel 
about  God.  I  fled  in  tears  to  the  woods,  and  laid  me 
down  on  the  earth.  Then  somewhat  like  the  beating 
of  many  hearts  came  up  to  me  out  of  the  ground; 
and  I  looked  and  my  cheek  lay  close  to  a  violet.  Then 
my  heart  took  courage  and  I  said, — 'I  know  that  thou 
art  the  word  of  my  God,  dear  violet ;  and  oh,  the  lad- 
der is  not  long  that  to  my  heaven  leads.  Measure 
what  space  a  violet  stands  above  the  ground:  'tis  no 
further  climbing  that  my  soul  and  angels  have  to  do 
than  that.'  "^^  We  are  not  surprised  to  find  him  say- 
ing in  "The  Marshes  of  Glynn" — 

"And  belief  overmasters  doubt,  and  I  know  that  I  know." 

It  is  this  rare  Christian  poet  who  voices  his  "reverent 
discipleship  of  the  Great  Artist  and  Master"  in  that 
most  perfect  of  all  tributes  in  English  poetry  to  the 
triumphant  surrender  of  the  Son  of  Man,  called  "A 
Ballad  of  Trees  and  the  Master"— 

"Into  the  woods  my  Master  went, 
Clean  forspent,  forspent. 
Into  the  woods  my  Master  came, 
Forspent  with  love  and  shame." 

"The   Crystal"   of   whom   Lanier   writes   in   another 
deeply  Christian  poem  is  Christ — 

"Jesus,  good  Paragon,  thou  Crystal  Christ." 

It  is  not  so  much  the  historic  Christ  whom  the 
poets  love  to  picture  as  it  is  the  living,  present  Christ 

"^^  Poems  of  Sidney  Lanier.  Edited  by  his  wife.  The  pas- 
sage quoted  is  from  the  memorial  introduction  by  William 
Hayes  Ward,  p.  XXXIX. 


THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  POETRY  237 

of  today.  Many  an  English  poet  has  sung  over  again 
the  message  of  Piers  Plowman — 

"Jesus  Christ  of  Heaven 
In  a  poor  man's  apparell  pursueth  us  ever." 

I  We  must  turn  again  to  Browning  and  Tennyson  to 
find  the  completest  and  most  satisfying  recognition  of 
Christ.  Browning's  "Christmas  Eve"  contains  a  tran. 
scendent  vision  of  the  Son  of  Man — a  vision  which  the 
poet  saw,  not  in  the  chapel,  but  out  on  the  hillside  in 
the  darkness  of  night — 

"All  at  once  I  looked  up  with  terror.    He  was  there, 
He  Himself  with  his  human  air." 

Volumes  of  argument  and  controversy  on  the  subject 
of  the  true  humanity  and  true  divinity  of  Christ 
are  replaced  by  these  lines.  The  poet  has  no  difficulty 
with  this  problem.  It  seems  to  him  a  thing  most 
gloriously  true — a  thing  too  real  and  too  personal  to 
be  altogether  mysterious — that  Christ  should  come 
"with  his  human  air"  among  men,  to  live  and  walk  and 
work  among  them,  and  to  bring  them  to  God.  Or 
what  can  exceed  the  spiritual  effect  of  the  scene  in 
"Saul"  where  the  poet  teaches  the  presence  of  Christ 
in  all  His  silent  friendliness  and  beauty?  David  the 
shepherd  has  played  various  shepherd  tunes  before 
the  weary  and  distracted  king,  the  water  rustling  in 
the  brook,  the  wind  playing  in  the  trees,  the  sheep 
browsing  on  the  hills.  Then  the  harp  takes  up  a 
march,  "wherein  man  runs  to  man  to  assist  him" — 

"Here  in  the  darkness  Saul  groaned." 

A  score  of  sermons  are  in  this  line.  Then  the  poet 
proclaims  the  Gospel  of  the  present  Christ — 


238     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITEEATURE 

"0  Saul,  it  shall  be 
A  Face  like  my  face  that  receives  thee:  a  Man  like  to  me, 
Thou  shalt  love  and  be  loved  by,  forever:  a  Hand  like  this 

hand 
Shall  throw  open  the  gates  of  new  life  to  thee!     See  The 

Christ  stand!" 

It  is  a  wonderful  apologetic,  a  profoundly  satisfying 
Christology. 

Read  Browning's  "Abt  Vogler,"  a  poem  dedicated 
to  the  power  of  music,  or,  to  put  it  in  other  words,  a 
poem  dedicated  to  those  who  do  not  reason  their  way 
into  reality,  but  who  feel  the  truth  that  is  close  to 
them  in  God  and  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  Not  a 
few  indeed  are  Christians  in  this  manner  of  being  so — 
they  know  whom  they  have  believed,  know  Him  in 
ways  that  no  polemic  of  doubt  can  overturn — 

"Therefore  to  whom  turn  I  but  to  Thee,  the  Ineffable  Name? 
Builder  and  Maker  Thou  of  houses  not  made  with  hands! 

***** 
Sorrow  is  hard  to  bear,  and  doubt  is  slow  to  clear, 
Each  sufferer  says  his  say,  his  scheme  of  the  weal  and  woe: 
But  God  has  a  few  of  us  whom  He  whispers  in  the  ear, 
The  rest  may  reason  and  welcome :  'tis  we  musicians  know."^^ 

Tennyson's  "In  Memoriam"  deserves  a  volume.  It 
is  the  English  classic  not  only  on  Immortality,  but  on 
Christ — 

"Strong  Son  of  God,  immortal  Love, 

Whom  we,  that  have  not  seen  Thy  face, 
By  faith,  and  faith  alone,  embrace. 
Believing  where  we  cannot  prove." 

1^  Mrs.  Browning  too  is  worthy  to  be  studied  for  her  recog- 
nition of  the  Bible  and  Christ.  See  Martha  Foote  Crow's  vol- 
ume. Modern  Poets  and  Christian  Teaching.  Elizabeth  Bar- 
rett Browning,  Chapter  IV,  "The  Christ." 


THE  BEBLE  IN  ENGLISH  POETRY         239 

This  noble  Christian  poem  breathes  throughout  a 
spirit  of  utmost  reverence  and  wonder  toward  the 
living,  reigning,  triumphant  Christ  of  faith. 

There  is  a  vitality  about  the  name  of  Christ  that 
makes  it  live  especially  in  the  hearts  of  poets.  When 
they  would  utter  their  best  thoughts,  somehow  they 
must  link  themselves  to  the  name  of  Jesus.  When 
they  would  deal  with  the  deep  longings  of  human 
hearts,  somehow  these  longings  find  utterance  in  the 
language  of  Jesus.  When  they  would  study  the  dark 
problems  of  human  life,  somehow  they  must  listen  at 
last  to  some  simple  word  of  the  Master.  It  is  in 
reality  the  spirit  of  Christ  inbreathed  that  has  given 
to  English  literature  its  greatest  mark  of  distinction, 
its  tone  of  uplift,  of  spirituality,  and  of  power.  Our 
English  poets  are  irresistibly  Christian — they  cannot 
keep  from  speaking  the  name  of  Christ. 


XVIII 

BIBLICAL  DOCTRINE  'IN  LITERATURE 

'7  have  felt 
A  presence  that  disturbs  me  with  the  joy 
Of  elevated  thoughts." — Wordsworth. 

IT  is  no  doubt  often  true,  as  Principal  Shairp  says, 
that  "Goethe,  the  high-priest  of  culture,  loathes 
Luther,  the  preacher  of  righteousness."  It 
would  be  a  futile  task  to  go  among  the  writers  and 
try  to  prove  that  they  have  prevailingly  adopted  a 
Biblical  point  of  view.  The  contrary  would  many 
times  be  found  to  be  the  case.  A  large  literature  of 
doubt  has  accumulated  in  the  past,  and  it  is  still  re- 
ceiving accessions.  Speaking  one  day  to  Tennyson, 
Thomas  Carlyle  sneered  at  the  doctrine  of  the  future 
life  as  ''old  Jewish  rags."  But  he  did  not  find  a  sym- 
pathetic auditor  in  the  author  of  "In  Memoriam."  We 
cannot  console  ourselves  with  the  easy  belief  that  most 
of  our  men  of  light  and  leading  have  been  frankly 
Christian  in  their  attitude.  Some  have  seemed  to 
eschew  the  subject  of  religion  altogether,  whilst  others 
seem  to  have  entered  early  into  "the  years  that  bring 
the  philosophic  mind,"  and  thus  to  have  built  about 
them  a  wall  of  intellectual  defense,  from  behind  which 
they  attack  and  defend  quite  merrily. 

For  the  most  part,  however,  our  English  writers  are 
constantly   aware   of   the   religious   question.     Even 

240 


BIBLICAL  DOCTRINE  IN  LITERATURE     241 

when  they  try,  they  do  not  succeed  in  divesting  them- 
selves wholly  of  the  subject.  It  returns  again  and 
again.  There  is  ever  a  haunting  echo  of  something 
that  will  not  cease,  a  reminder  of  a  power  that  will 
not  abdicate.  Shelley  wrote  himself  down  gaily  as 
"P.  B.  Shelley,  atheist";  yet  Robert  Browning  held 
that  if  Shelley  had  lived  he  would  have  become  a 
Christian  believer.  The  Christian  poet  detected  be- 
neath the  unbelief  of  the  other  the  lurking  signs  of 
belief.  There  were  great  truths  that  kept  asserting 
themselves  beneath  his  negations:  there  were  smoul- 
dering fires  of  feeling  that  threatend  to  burst  forth 
behind  the  coldness  of  his  intellectualism.  This  phe- 
nomenon of  irresistible  believing  is  quite  familiar  in 
the  literary  world.  Our  writers  are  often  more  Christian 
than  they  would  have  us  suppose.  Their  independ- 
ence, their  mood  of  protest,  their  spirit  of  quest  and- 
adventure,  the  daring  of  their  imagination,  the  wide 
sweep  of  their  vision — such  influences  that  are  native 
to  them  and  that  constitute  the  very  atmosphere  of 
their  life  and  work,  may  seem  to  carry  them  far  away 
from  the  moorings  of  faith.  Yet  how  often  we  ob- 
serve that  their  hearts  draw  them  back — ^back  to  the 
simplicities  of  faith.  Their  own  gifts  and  capacities 
clamor  for  something  more  than  negation.  The  poet's 
imagination  must  have  something  to  feed  upon:  it 
cannot  wander  forever  over  the  waste  finding  no  rest 
for  the  sole  of  its  foot :  it  must  at  least  find  some  olive 
branch  and  pluck  it. 

It  is  thus  true — we  believe  It  cannot  be  disproved — 
that  our  writers  in  general  have  at  least  tendencies  to 
belief,  even  where  their  intellectual  formulae  have  a 
contrary  appearance.     Literature  in  the  last  analysis 


242     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

cannot  remain  cold.  It  warms  itself  at  the  fires  of 
life.  It  cannot  exist  apart  from  the  wells  of  emotion. 
Its  interests  are  closely  akin  to  the  interests  of  re- 
ligion. They  are  not  two  separate  spheres,  that 
merely  impinge  one  upon  the  other — they  are  rather 
interlocking  spheres.  Much  that  transpires  in  one  is 
duplicated  in  the  other.  We  have  seen  how  writers 
of  fiction  are  bound  to  turn  to  religion.  It  is  too 
large  a  concern  to  be  ignored.  Fiction  writers  are 
wiser  than  some  philosophers — they  do  not  undertake 
to  bow  religion  out  of  the  world  of  human  experience. 
But  while  this  close  relation  between  literature  and 
religion  is  to  be  insisted  upon,  it  must  also  be  freely 
admitted  that  the  two  are  not  equivalent.  They  do  not 
undertake  the  same  task,  they  do  not  deal  with  the 
same  material.  Their  method,  too,  is  different. 
Literature  suffers  less  restraint — it  is  more  flexible 
and  adaptable.  No  one  thinks  of  making  the  same 
demands  upon  the  poet  that  are  made  upon  the  theo- 
logian. If  the  poet  were  in  all  respects  a  theologian, 
he  would  not  be  a  poet.  He  must  have  freedom  to 
move  in  his  own  track.  He  may  greatly  assist  the 
cause  of  religion,  but  he  must  do  it  in  his  own  way. 
If  you  try  to  bind  him  hand  and  foot  in  theological 
fetters,  his  music  will  fall  into  silence.  But  let  him 
sing  his  own  song,  at  his  own  time  and  in  his  own  way, 
and  you  shall  scarcely  fail  to  hear  some  notes  that  will 
cheer  your  soul  with  familiar  and  well-beloved  truth. 
This  independence  of  the  writer  is  to  be  constantly  re- 
membered, else  we  shall  not  rightly  assess  the  spiritual 
value  of  his  work.  We  must  not  insist  too  strongly 
upon  the  theological  pattern  for  the  writer.  The  poet, 
for  instance,  is  still  the  maker,  the  creator,  and  he 


BIBLICAL  DOCTRINE  IN  LITERATURE     243 

must  be  permitted  to  ply  his  art  as  his  soul  is  moved. 
You  must  not  expect  him  to  carry  over  the  Biblical 
doctrines  in  bodily  form  into  his  work — it  is  enough 
if  you  hear  the  refrain  of  them.  You  may  have  to 
content  yourself  with  seeing  only  the  shadows  of  the 
doctrines,  but  this  in  itself  is  no  slight  thing.  It  is  in 
fact  just  this  inner  consciousness  of  religious  truth 
that  one  is  aware  of  with  most  of  our  writers.  They 
cannot  run  away  from  the  shadow  of  faith. 

Of  one  thing  we  may  be  certain — the  imperative 
subjects  of  the  Christian  religion  are  bound  to  receive 
attention  from  English  writers.  They  are,  to  say  the 
least,  inheritors  from  the  sacred  past.  Religion  is 
their  most  precious  heirloom.  It  Is  always  to  be 
reckoned  with.  It  is  not  in  vain  that  the  Bible  and 
English  literature  have  run  a  parallel  course  in  Eng- 
lish history  for  twelve  hundred  years.  The  palpable 
result  is  that  the  balance  has  been  kept  between  faith 
and  knowledge.  The  Bible  as  the  monitor  of  faith 
has  invited  men  to  emphasize  the  unseen.  Our  writers 
have  felt  this,  and  have  yielded  to  it  in  measurable 
ways.  As  a  rule  they  may  be  reckoned  among  the 
friends  of  faith.  Their  attitude  toward  the  spiritual 
verities  of  religion  is  at  bottom  not  unfavorable.  Ten- 
nyson voices  the  relative  inferiority  of  knowledge  to 
faith— 

**Let  her  know  her  place 
She  is  the  second,  not  the  first." 

The  above  qualifying  remarks  must  be  kept  In  mind 
when  we  begin  to  examine  English  literature  for 
traces  of  the  separate  doctrines  of  the  Bible.  For  ex- 
ample, the  doctrine  of  God.     We  should  not  expect 


244     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

to  find  this  doctrine  transferred  to  the  pages  of  im- 
aginative Hterature  in  full  and  unbroken  form  after 
the  manner  of  the  creeds.  The  writer  will  almost  of 
necessity  leave  his  personal  mark  upon  the  doctrine. 
His  own  point  of  view  will  receive  expression,  his 
own  manner  of  emphasis  will  obtain.  Particularly  if 
he  be  a  poet,  the  doctrine  of  God  is  likely  to  be  en- 
veloped with  feeling  rather  than  with  reason.  Like 
the  Apostle  he  knows  whom  he  believes,  and  this 
though  there  be  clouds  and  darkness  round  about  Him. 
He  feels  too  the  ethical  and  spiritual  import  of  what 
he  believes.     He  may  be — 

"Perplext  in  faith,  but  pure  in  deeds." 

All  is  not  clear  to  him,  but  he  finds  his  way  neverthe- 
less to  the  altar  stairs  that  "slope  through  darkness 
up  to  God." 

In  reality  it  is  the  writer  more  than  the  theologian 
who  brings  out  the  riches  of  the  idea  of  God.  The 
fact  that  he  is  permitted  to  give  imaginative  treatment 
to  the  material  of  the  Bible  enables  him  to  open  up 
new  vistas  of  thought,  and  to  broaden  the  range  and 
sweep  of  Biblical  doctrine.  We  doubt  if  the  indebted- 
ness of  the  Church  to  literature  in  this  respect  has 
ever  been  adequately  acknowledged.  Too  often 
orthodoxy  is  blinded  to  the  value  of  those  definitions 
and  interpretations  of  Christian  doctrine  in  literature 
which  seem  on  the  surface  to  be  anti-creedal,  but 
which  in  truth  support  the  main  contention.  One  can 
readily  pick  flaws  in  the  manner  in  which  the  poets 
and  other  writers  have  stated  their  belief.  But  the 
main  question  is — are  they  not  plainly  aware  of  the 
Presence  ?    It  is  indeed  in  the  recognition  of  the  divine 


BIBLICAL  DOCTRINE  IN  LITERATURE     245 

Presence  that  we  discover  the  rich  and  varied  service 
of  literature.  The  poet  never  thinks  of  God  as  shut 
up  within  a  realm  of  His  own.  He  is  immanent  in  all 
the  life  of  man  on  this  earth.  He  is  so  close  to  us  that 
we  dare  not  forget  that  He  is  here.  As  in  Browning's 
words — "God  renews  His  ancient  rapture."  Thus 
whatever  departures  from  the  creeds  the  poets  may 
be  guilty  of,  there  is  nearly  always  the  saving  clause  of 
reality.  It  is  not  always  the  same — at  least  it  is  dif- 
ferently expressed.    With  Wordsworth  it  is — 

"A  presence  that  disturbs  mc  with  the  joy 
Of  elevated  thoughts;  a  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused." 

Less  mystically  Browning  writes  in  "The  Ring  and  the 

Book"— 

"I  find  first 
Writ  down  for  every  A  B  C  of  fact, 
In  the  beginning  God  made  heaven  and  earth." 

And  in  "Mr.  Sludge,  the  Medium"— 

"We  find  great  things  are  made  of  little  things; 
And  little  things  go  lessening,  till  at  last 
Comes  God  behind  them." 

But  Browning  is  not  always  so  practical  in  his  doctrine 
of  God.  Like  all  the  other  poets  he  falls  into  the 
poetical  idea  of  immanence — ^as  in  "Paracelsus" — 

"God  dwells  in  all, 
From  life's  minute  beginnings,  up  at  last 
To  man — the  consummation  of  this  scheme 
Of  being,  the  completion  of  this  sphere  of  life." 

The  poets  not  only  teach  us  the  presence  of  God,  but 
they  insist  upon  reverence  and  confidence — 


246     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

"God's  in  His  Heaven, 
All's  right  with  the  world." 

We  have  spoken  of  how  the  poets  feel  God  rather  than 
reason  about  Him.  They  know  that  He  is,  from  the 
logic  of  their  emotions.     Thus  Browning — 

,     "The  sense  within  me  that  I  owe  a  debt 
Convinces  me  that  somewhere  must  be 
Somebody  waiting  to  have  his  due." 

Tennyson  makes  his  Arthur  say  in  the  "Idylls" 

"I  found  Him  in  the  shining  of  the  stars, 
I  marked  Him  in  the  flowering  of  His  fields, 
But  in  His  ways  with  men  I  find  Him  not." 

The  poet  is  careful  to  point  out  the  fault  expressed 
in  the  last  line.  Not  to  find  God  in  humanity,  after 
having  seen  him  in  nature,  is  a  tragic  blunder.  Litera- 
ture has  served  us  well  in  this  particular — its  very 
closeness  to  life  makes  it  clamor  for  such  an  interpre- 
tation of  God  as  brings  Him  into  closest  intimacy  with 
humanity.  Practically  thus  the  poets  have  no  diffi- 
culty with  the  Incarnation — they  feel  the  need  of 
Christ — 

"He  was  there, 
He  himself  with  His  human  air." 

The  charge  of  pantheism  against  Tennyson  is  only 
valid  when  we  forget  that  he  is  a  poet  and  that  he 
deals  with  the  doctrine  of  God  after  the  manner  of  a 
poet.  "The  Higher  Pantheism"  and  "Flower  in  the 
Crannied  Wall"  have  brought  him  under  suspicion 
with  many.  But  here  as  elsewhere  Tennyson  is  but 
affirming  the  ineffable  Presence — He  may  be  other 
than  we  have  supposed,  but  He  is  there! 

**Is  not  the  vision  He?  tho*  He  be  not  that  which  he  seems?'* 


BIBLICAL  DOCTRINE  IN  LITERATURE     247 

Tennyson  never  wrote  more  serviceable  words — they 
have  long  proved  a  comfort  to  many  souls,  and  have 
done  not  a  little  to  reconcile  faith  and  reason — than 
these — 

"Speak  to  Him,  thou,  for  He  hears;  and  Spirit  with  Spirit 

can  meet — 
Closer  is  He  than  breathing ;  and  nearer  than  hands  and  feet." 

After  all  is  said  we  must  confess  that  the  poets 
have  read  deeply  and  on  the  whole  wisely  in  the 
Word.  There  is  much  poetry  of  the  Bible  that 
presents  views  of  the  transcendence  of  God — witness 
the  Book  of  Job.  It  is  not  strange  that  many  writers 
have  caught  from  the  Scripture  itself  the  lofty  strain 
of  an  immanent  Deity.  Yet  the  poets  also  have  many 
of  them  been  ardent  believers  in  the  practical  care  of 
Providence.  George  Macdonald  recites  in  verse  the 
words  of  the  Master — "Not  a  sparrow  falleth  to  the 
ground  without  your  Father" — 

"Therefore  it  is  a  blessed  place, 
And  the  sparrow  in  high  grace." 

No  doctrine  of  the  Scripture  has  received  more 
ample  recognition  in  literature  than  the  doctrine  of 
Sin  and  Punishment.  Few  texts  of  the  Bible  have 
been  so  frequently  made  the  text  of  literary  compo- 
sitions as  the  words  of  the  Apostle,  "The  wages  of 
sin  is  death,"  and  "Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap."  From  the  psychologist  all  the 
way  to  the  writer  of  fiction  and  the  poet,  the  profound 
truth  of  these  Scriptural  affirmations  receives  frank 
recognition.     Fiction  especially  must  deal  constantly 


^ 


«48     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

with  the  reahty  of  sin.  Certain  schools  of  ReaUsm  in 
fiction  have  indeed  exceeded  the  bounds  of  propriety 
in  picturing  the  activities  of  sinful  lives.  Writers  as  a 
rule  are  not  much  concerned  vi^ith  any  doctrine  of  the 
origin  of  sin.  They  are,  however,  profoundly  inter- 
ested in  the  nature  and  operation  of  sin.  George  Eliot 
is  an  excellent  example  of  such  literary  interest.  Her 
Romola  is  a  theological  brief  in  the  guise  of  fiction  on 
the  subject  of  sin.  Such  phases  of  the  operation  of 
sin  in  human  life  as  the  seared  conscience,  the  con- 
tagion of  evil  example,  the  cumulative  force  of  evil, 
the  insidious  effect  of  evil  inheritance,  the  sinister  in- 
fluence of  evil  surroundings,  the  deceptiveness  of 
temptation,  and  the  fascination  of  a  life  of  indulgence, 
are  as  familiar  in  literature  as  they  are  in  the  pulpit. 
There  are  novels,  like  The  Scarlet  Letter,  and  Adam 
Bede,  that  preach  more  powerful  sermons  on  the 
waste  and  sorrow  of  sin  than  any  pulpit  in  the  land. 
The  indebtedness  of  writers  to  the  Bible  in  dealing 
with  such  subjects  is  of  course  undeniable.  No  other 
book  furnishes  such  vivid  and  impressive  material  on 
the  subject  of  sin  as  the  Bible.  Nor  is  the  material  all 
in  abstract  form — most  of  it  indeed  is  in  the  form  of 
incident,  illustration,  example,  history.  Of  late  years 
it  has  become  almost  the  habit  of  novelists  to  search 
the  Scripture  to  find  themes  for  story,  novel  and  play. 
Shakespeare's  plays,  as  we  have  seen,  draw  heavily 
upon  the  Bible,  in  their  teaching  about  human  sin. 
Like  many  of  the  writers,  Shakespeare  is  altogether 
orthodox  in  respect  to  the  effect  of  sin  on  our  nature. 
It  is  no  mere  defect,  it  is  not  the  result  of  ignorance  or 
of  untoward  circumstances — it  is  far  deeper,  a  taint 
in  the  blood,  a  "stamp  of  nature." 


BIBLICAL  DOCTRINE  IN  LITERATURE     249 

Richard  III  confesses — 

"I  am  in 
So  far  in  blood,  that  sin  will  pluck  on  sin/' 

Hamlet's  words — 

"Thus  conscience  doth  make  cowards  of  us  all" — 

contain  an  entire  volume  on  the  effect  of  sin  in  the 
moral  history  of  mankind.  The  blindness  of  a  nature 
that  has  grown  used  to  sin  finds  expression  in  Antony 
and  Cleopatra — 

"When  we  in  our  viciousness  grow  hard, 
(O  misery  on't!)  the  wise  gods  seal  our  eyes; 
In  our  own  filth  drop  our  clear  judgments,  make  us 
Adore  our  errors,  laugh  at  us  while  we  strut 
To  our  confusion." 

The  great  English  tragedies  are  with  scarcely  an  ex- 
ception profoundly  Biblical  in  their  doctrine  of  the 
nature  and  effect  of  sin.  And  as  for  the  novelists, 
they  have  rendered  a  great  service  in  showing  us  the 
exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin.  What  theologian,  for  ex- 
ample, has  done  so  well  as  Thackeray  in  exposing  the 
ugliness  of  hypocrisy?  Poets  like  Bums  have  given 
the  world  such  lessons  in  the  strictness  and  majesty 
of  the  moral  law,  and  in  the  certain  folly  of  playing 
with  conscience,  as  can  never  be  forgotten. 

We  must  allude  again  to  Tennyson,  because  he  is 
foremost  among  our  English  poets  in  his  account  of 
the  effect  of  sin  upon  human  life.  In  "The  Vision  of 
Sin,"  "The  Two  Voices,"  and  "The  Palace  of  Art," 
the  poet  gives  strong  support  to  the  Biblical  ideas  of 
sin  and  atonement.  "The  Idylls  of  the  King"  witness 
powerfully  to   the   withering  influence   of   sin   upon 


250     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

character.  The  conf'^ssion  of  Lancelot — ^he  who  had 
a  secret  sin  and  therefore  with  all  his  native  nobility 
could  not  see  the  Holy  Grail — is  a  classic  example  of 
Scriptural  teaching — 

"But  in  me  lived  a  sin 
So  strange,  of  such  a  kind,  that  all  of  pure, 
Noble  and  knightly  in  me  twined  and  clung 
Round  that  one  sin,  until  the  wholesome  flower 
And  poisonous  grew  together." 

Contrast  with  the  weakening  effect  of  sin  the  trans- 
forming effect  of  a  holy  life  as  in  the  case  of  the  maid, 
who  like  Moses  did  not  know  that  her  face  shone,  and 
that  her  eyes  were  full  of  the  light  of  goodness — 

"Beyond  my  knowing  of  them,  beautiful, 
Beyond  all  knowing  of  them,  wonderful, 
Beautiful  in  the  light  of  holiness." 

Literature  fails  us  often  in  its  recognition  of  an 
adequate  atonement.  It  sees  the  sin,  but  it  does  not 
always  see  the  fulness  of  salvation.  It  recognizes  the 
need  of  penitence,  and  even  of  atonement,  but  its 
method  of  atonement  is  too  often  far  short  of  the 
Biblical  measure.  It  'sees  the  Christ  stand,'  but  it 
does  not  grasp  all  the  meaning  of  what  he  has  done. 
The  poets,  for  instance,  do  not  hesitate  to  teach  retri- 
bution for  sin,  but  they  fail  often  to  point  the  way  to 
the  Cross.  The  writers  see  but  broken  lights  of  re- 
demption. Nevertheless  this  partial  testimony  has 
value,  and  helps  to  build  up  the  whole  of  a  great  truth. 
If  Shakespeare  pictures  the  goodness  of  Prospero 
leading  men  to  repentance;  if  Victor  Hugo,  to  take 
an  example  beyond  the  range  of  English  literature, 
teaches  that  Jean  Valjean  discovers  his  own  sinfulness 


BIBLICAL  DOCTRINE  IN  LITERATURE     251 

under  tlie  wonderful  light  of  Bishop  Bienvenu's  good- 
ness; if  George  Eliot  in  Silas  Marner  teaches  the 
redemptive  power  of  sacrificial  service — we  feel  that 
these  theories  of  repentance  and  atonement  are  only 
in  part.  Nevertheless  they  point  unmistakably  to  a 
larger  truth.  What  Dr.  van  Dyke  says  of  this  is  very 
true — "No  great  writer  represents  the  whole  of  Chris- 
tianity in  its  application  to  life.  But  I  think  that 
almost  every  great  writer,  since  the  religion  of  Jesus 
touched  the  leading  races,  has  helped  to  reveal  some 
new  aspect  of  its  beauty,  to  make  clear  some  new 
secret  of  its  sweet  reasonableness,  or  to  enforce  some 
new  lesson  of  its  power.'* 

We  cannot  give  space  here  to  more  than  the  briefest 
emphasis  of  the  place  which  the  doctrine  of  Immor- 
tality has  commanded  in  English  literature.  On  this 
subject  the  voices  of  literature  have  not  been  unani- 
mous. We  have  thus  the  saddening  lines  of  Swin- 
burne, which  cause  the  heart  to  sicken  and  the  blood  to 
run  cold — 

"From  too  much  love  of  living 
From  hope  and  fear  set  free, 
We  thank  with  brief  thanksgiving 
Whatever  gods  may  be, 
That  no  life  lives  forever; 
That  dead  men  rise  up  never; 
That  even  the  weariest  rjver 
Winds  somewhere  safe  to  sea." 

But  this  agnostic  attitude  is  not  common  with  the 
poets.  Almost  universally  they  are  buoyed  and  in- 
spired by  the  hope  of  immortality.  There  is  much  that 
they  do  not  see  and  understand,  but  for  them  as  with 


252    THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

the  majority  of  men  instinct  and  feeling  count  heavily. 
Love  bridges  many  a  ch^sm.    As  with  Browning — 

"Were  knowledge  all  thy  faculty,  then  God 
Must  be  ignored;  love  gains  Him  by  first  leap" 

This  leaping  of  the  soul  to  God  by  means  of  feeling 
may  be  said  to  be  at  the  heart  of  much  belief  in  im- 
mortality. It  is  especially  so  with  minds  that  are 
highly  imaginative.  Few  writers  of  consequence  in 
the  development  of  English  literature  have  not  at 
some  time  faced  the  problem  of  the  future.  A  cloud 
of  witnesses  in  the  literary  world  prove  that  on  this 
subject  men  must  lean  heavily  upon  the  Word,  rather 
than  upon  their  own  understanding. 

It  is  significant  that  two  of  the  major  poems  in  our 
language,  Wordsworth's  *'Ode  on  the  Intimations  of 
Immortality,"  which  Emerson  described  as  "the  high- 
water  mark  of  poetry  in  the  nineteenth  century,"  and 
Tennyson's  "In  Memoriam,"  which  has  been  called 
"the  English  classic  on  the  love  of  immortality  and 
the  immortality  of  love" — it  is  significant  that  two 
such  outstanding  poems  are  devoted  to  the  high  sub- 
ject of  immortality.  Tennyson  reaches  the  climax  of 
poetic  confession  when  he  says  at  the  close  of  "The 
Holy  Grail"— 

"In  moments  when  he   feels  he  cannot  die, 
And  knows  himself  no  vision  to  himself, 
Nor  the  high  God  a  vision,  nor  that  One 
Who  rose  again." 

Of  these  lines  the  poet  himself  declared  that  they  are 
"the  (spiritually)  central  lines  in  the  Idylls.'  The 
heart  of  it  all  is  here — that  One  who  rose  again/' 


BIBUCAL  DOCTRINE  IN  LITERATURE     25S 

There  is  yet  another  Scriptural  doctrine  Which  has 
been  widely  reflected  in  English  literature — this  is  the 
doctrine  of  Prayer.  The  poets  are  naturally  inclined 
to  belief  in  prayer.  There  is  indeed  what  may  almost 
be  described  as  a  poetical  element  in  prayer  that 
fascinates  sensitive  minds.  The  thought  of  com- 
munion with  the  Unseen,  of  obtaining  strength  from 
invisible  sources,  of  touching  the  intangible — is  a 
thought  which  is  native  to  the  poetic  temperament. 
The  Christian  doctrine  of  prayer  is  thus  easily  adapt- 
able to  the  use  of  poetry. 

It  is  interesting  to  note,  how  in  the  case  of  Tenny- 
son, the  various  phases  of  prayer  are  brought  out,  not 
by  way  of  analysis,  but  by  way  of  unconscious  adapta- 
tion.^ Thus  in  "The  Higher  Pantheism"  we  hear  the 
echo  of  many  passages  of  the  Scripture — 

"Speak  to  Him,  thou,  for  He  hears,  and  Spirit  with  Spirit 
can  meet." 

In  "Enoch  Arden,"  when  the  loneliness  of  exile  In 
the  island  is  almost  unbearable,  the  poet  describes  the 
experience  of  the  companionship  and  consolation  of 
prayer  in  never-to-be-forgotten  lines — 

"Had  not  his  poor  heart 
Spoken  with  that,  which  being  everywhere 
Lets  none,  who  speaks  with  Him,  seem  alone, 
Surely  the  man  had  died  of  solitude." 

Again  when  Enoch  Arden  returns  after  years  to  find 
that  his  wife  is  wedded  to  another,  it  is  only  by  prayer 
that  he  gains  strength  for  the  ordeal  and  power  of 
resolution  for  the  future — 

*  See  The  Poetry  of  Tennyson,  Henry  van  Dyke,  Chap- 
ter on  "The  Bible  in  Tennyson,"  p.  266. 


254     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

"Uphold  me,  Father,  in  my  loneliness 
A  little  longer !  aid  me,  give  me  strength 
Not  to  tell  her,  never  to  let  her  know." 

In  another  poem,  "Harold,"  Tennyson  states  his  con- 
viction of  the  far  reach  of  prayer — 

"No  help  but  prayer, 
A  breath  that  fleets  beyond  this  iron  world 
And  touches  Him  that  made  it." 

Noblest  of  all  his  affirmations  of  the  reality  of  prayer* 
is  that  in  which  the  naturalness  of  prayer  and  it? 
power  are  the  burden  of  his  thought.  The  passage  is 
in  "The  Passing  of  Arthur"— 

*Tray  for  my  soul.     More  things  are  wrought  by  prayer 

Than  this  world  dreams  of.    Wherefore,  let  thy  voice 

Rise  like  a  fountain  for  me  night  and  day. 

For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats 

That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 

If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer 

Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend? 

For  so  the  whole  round  earth  is  every  way 

Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God." 

One  is  reminded  of  what  is  said  of  the  Patriarch  Job 
— "And  Jehovah  turned  the  captivity  of  Job,  when  he 
prayed  for  his  friends." 

It  has  been  given  especially  to  the  poets,  with  their 
imaginative  gift  and  their  power  of  applying  truth  to 
life  in  unexpected  ways — a  faculty  which  as  Dean 
Stubbs  says  "has  done  far  more  for  the  average 
human  will  than  the  philosophic  reason" — to  interpret 
to  us  many  of  the  finer  and  deeper  meanings  of  prayer, 
and  to  help  us  in — 

"prizing  more  than  Plato  things  I  learned 
At  the  best  Academe,  a  mother's  knee." 


XIX 

BIBLICAL  IDEALISM   IN  LITERATURE 

*'Where  there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish" 

Authorized  Version. 

THE  ultimate  test  of  any  literature  lies  in  its 
power  to  awaken  the  mind  and  heart  of  man 
to  great  thoughts  and  important  endeavors. 
Saint  Simon,  the  French  philosopher  and  socialist,  had 
his  valet  awaken  him  in  the  morning  with  the  words : 
"Remember,  monsieur,  that  you  have  great  things 
to  accomplish."  If  literature  cannot  thus  announce  a 
new  day  of  life  and  service  to  us,  it  has  failed  to  attain 
the  highest  function  of  literature.  It  may  inform  and 
instruct,  it  may  prove  itself  to  be  in  many  ways  a 
literature  of  knowledge,  but  if  it  be  not  also  a  litera- 
ture of  power,  calculated  to  stir  the  being  of  man  with 
a  new  vision  of  life,  it  has  fallen  far  short  in  its  use- 
fulness. It  is  literature,  perhaps,  but  it  is  not  creative 
literature.  It  does  not  permeate  the  deep  places  of 
life:  it  does  not  help  to  build  the  Temple  of  the  Soul. 
Judged  in  this  way  the  Bible  is  preeminently  a 
literature  of  power.  It  possesses  the  qualities  that 
belong  to  creative  literature.  This  is  proved  by  the 
fact  that  the  nations  that  have  been  brought  most  fully 
under  its  influence  have  not  been  able  to  remain  still — 
the  Bible  would  not  permit  them  to  stagnate,    Where- 

255 


256     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

ever  it  has  gone,  it  has  produced  a  ferment  of  thought 
and  action.  It  has  so  stormed  the  hearts  of  men  with 
its  ideals  of  Hfe  and  destiny  that  they  have  been  com- 
pelled to  give  up  their  passive  attitudes  and  adopt 
Biblical  views  of  aggression  and  service.  As  Dr.  John 
A.  Hutton  says — "People  who  know  the  Bible,  and 
have  been  moved  by  its  great  ideas  of  God,  and  of 
man,  and  of  what  God  wants  to  make  of  man,  will  not 
consent  for  more  than  a  time  to  conditions  which  de- 
press and  annul  the  surging  response  of  their  spirits 
to  the  invitation  of  life  and  faith."  This  alone  is  al- 
most a  sufficient  proof  of  the  profound  inspiration  that 
underlies  the  whole  of  Scripture — that  it  brings  to 
men  the  most  inspiring,  most  awakening  message  and 
program  of  life  that  they  are  privileged  to  know. 

Thus,  as  Coleridge  said,  the  Bible  find*  us  at  greater 
depths  in  our  life  than  any  other  book.  It  is  this 
creative  quality  of  the  Bible,  this  power  to  awaken  and 
inspire,  this  control  of  thought  and  action,  this  faculty 
of  lodging  constructive  elements  in  the  soul — it  is  this 
spirit  of  the  Bible  entering  into  English  literature,  that 
has  helped  to  make  it  the  noble  instrument  that  it  is. 
We  know  of  no  better  name  for  this  profound  con- 
tagion of  power  communicated  to  literature  from  the 
Bible  than  Biblical  Idealism — ^by  which  we  mean 
simply  the  pursuit  of  that  which  is  ideal  in  life,  the 
effort  to  define  and  attain  certain  noble  objectives  in 
the  life  plan.  For  the  power  of  Holy  Scripture  lies 
not  alone  in  the  doctrines  that  it  teaches — its  ultimate 
power  inheres  in  certain  definite  effects  which  are 
registered  in  the  life  plan.  Such  effects,  it  is  natural 
to  expect,  would  be  apparent  in  the  books  that  men 
write  out  of  their  hearts.    We  propose,  in  this  final 


BIBLICAL  IDEALISM  IN  LITERATURE      257 

chapter,  to  examine  these  vital  effects  of  the  sacred 
Book. 

We  meet  at  once  in  the  Bible  with  an  imperative  de- 
mand for  the  vision  of  the  Unseen^  The  contradiction 
in  terms  in  no  wise  troubles  us,  for  we  are  conscious 
that  this  appeal  to  us  to  open  our  eyes  to  that  which 
really  cannot  be  seen  is  in  reality  most  reasonable. 
When  we  read,  for  example,  what  the  writer  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  says  about  Moses,  that  "he  en- 
dured as  seeing  him  who  is  invisible,"  we  find  an 
answering  response  in  our  own  hearts.  The  testimony 
of  our  own  experience  is  adequate  here.  The  spirit 
within  us  is  ever  looking  out  of  the  windows  to  catch 
glimpses  of  the  Unseen. 

Now  the  strength  of  the  appeal  of  the  Scripture  to 
the  human  soul  begins  just  here — in  its  emphasis  of 
the  Invisible.  One  walks  in  the  pathways  of  the  Word 
of  God  in  the  presence  of  unseen  realities.  It  is  "the 
King  eternal,  immortal,  invisible**  who  commands  the 
worship  of  men ;  it  is  Christ  "who  is  the  image  of  the 
invisible  God"  who  calls  men  to  discipleship ;  it  is  "the 
invisible  things  of  him  since  the  creation  of  the  world 
*  *  *  even  his  everlasting  power  and  divinity,"  that 
overshadow  the  minds  of  men.  Throughout  the 
Scripture  there  is  ever  a  pressure  of  the  Unseen,  and 
therewith  a  demand  for  open-eyed  vision  of  the 
Eternal. 

Thus  it  is  that  they  who  read  this  sacred  volume 
assiduously  are  brought  under  a  kind  of  discipline  of 
the  Invisible.  The  Unseen  enters,  as  it  were,  into  the 
very  fabric  of  their  thought,  it  becomes  part  and  par- 
cel of  their  being,  it  affects  profoundly  the  tone  and 
temper  of  their  life.    That  there  is  nothing  unnatural 


258     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

or  artificial  in  this  is  clear,  as  we  have  said,  because 
the  heart  of  man  is  found  to  possess  a  desire,  almost 
an  appetite,  for  the  Unseen.  When  this  desire  is  truly 
satisfied,  a  deep  peace  comes  in  the  soul.  "Great  peace 
have  they  which  love  thy  law."  Men  wonder  often 
how  it  is  that  the  Bible  so  strangely  soothes  and  quiets 
their  troubled  hearts.  It  is  the  companionship  of  in- 
visible realities,  the  fulfilment  of  real  desires  of  their 
own  souls  that  they  enjoy.  With  wise  discrimination 
the  Scripture  itself  speaks  of  this  as  "the  peace  of  God 
which  passeth  all  understanding."  We  do  not  mean 
to  say  that  all  Bible  readers  experience  this  quieting 
effect,  but  we  do  wish  to  affirm  that  the  discipline  of 
the  Unseen  which  is  furnished  by  the  Word  of  God 
tends  in  the  minds  of  men  to  produce  the  poise  of 
those  who  know.  The  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  has  this  in  mind  when  he  says — "Now  faith 
is  the  assurance  of  things  hoped  for,  a  conviction  of 
things  not  seen."  It  is  exactly  this  conviction  or  faith 
of  the  soul  in  the  Unseen  that  is  the  formative  princi- 
ple of  all  Biblical  teaching,  and  which  constitutes  the 
mighty  grip  of  the  Scripture  upon  the  human  mind. 

What  now  do  we  find  in  literature  that  corresponds 
with  this  Biblical  discipline  of  the  soul  in  the  vision 
of  the  Unseen?  In  what  manner,  in  other  words,  does 
this  formative  principle  of  "conviction  of  things  not 
seen"  pass  over  into  literature?  The  field  of  inquiry 
here  is  both  broad  and  fascinating.  We  can  only 
point  out  in  a  few  words  the  impressive  correspond- 
ence that  exists. 

What  we  find  then  is  this — that  literature  reveals 
the  same  constant  lift  of  the  mind  toward  the  In- 
visible.   It  practises  in  its  own  way  the  same  discipline 


BIBLICAL  IDEALISM  IN  LITERATURE      259 

of  the  Unseen,  it  summons  men  to  the  same  tutelage 
of  aspiration  after  that  which  can  be  grasped  only  by 
the  finer  faculties  of  the  soul.  It  deals  with  things 
intangible  yet  how  real  and  imperative.  Its  appeal  is 
ever  to  the  deep  things  in  the  mind,  its  intuitions, 
feelings,  emotions,  instincts.  And  ever  it  seeks  to  fix 
the  mind  upon  a  Higher  Reality.  This  Higher  Reality 
may  be  indefinite,  and  quite  too  impersonal,  as  it  seems 
to  us,  nevertheless  it  is  real.  What  we  wish  especially 
to  make  clear  is  that  writers  of  imaginative  literature 
are  under  the  same  spell  of  the  Unseen  as  are  prophet, 
psalmist  and  apostle.  In  the  case  of  the  Scripture  it 
is  the  faculty  of  faith  that  is  in  use,  in  the  case  of 
literature  it  is  the  faculty  of  imagination.  But  be- 
tween these  two  there  exist  a  correspondence  in  nature 
and  a  coordination  in  service  that  are  often  unreal- 
ized. In  both  instances  there  is  the  discipline  of  the 
Unseen,  the  drift  of  souls  upward  toward  an  object 
of  faith  and  hope.  Thus  the  transcendentalism  of 
literature,  which  frequently  brings  our  writers  under 
suspicion  of  unbelief,  is  in  reality  a  projection  of  the 
operations  of  faith  into  the  field  of  imagination.  The 
tools  of  the  writer  are  different,  but  they  deal  with 
the  same  substance  of  the  Unseen,  they  seek  to  fashion 
in  their  own  way  the  object  of  faith.  Nor  is  literature 
lacking  in  the  spirit  of  endurance  and  peace  which 
grows  under  the  discipline  of  the  Unseen.  Its  sum- 
mons to  men  is  not  divergent  in  spirit  at  least  from 
that  to  which  Moses  responded  when  he  "endured  as 
seeing  him  who  is  invisible."  We  believe  then  that 
our  English  writers,  emerging  as  they  do  from  among 
generations  of  men  whose  minds  have  been  steeped  in 
that  discipline  of  the  Unseen  which  is  inculcated  by 


260     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

the  Bible,  are  for  the  most  part  promoters,  whether 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  through  their  imagina- 
tive creations  in  literature,  of  the  Bibhcal  idealism 
of  faith. 

Closely  related  to  this  discipline  of  the  Unseen  is 
another  important  element  in  what  we  have  here  called 
Biblical  idealism.  This  is  the  profound  sense  of  awe 
which  is  produced  throughout  the  Bible,  from  the  "In 
the  beginning  God"  of  Genesis  to  the  "Amen"  of 
Revelation.  This  sense  of  awe  is  the  natural  con- 
comitant of  the  tutelage  of  the  Invisible  to  which  we 
have  just  referred.  The  shadow  of  the  Ineffable 
Presence  falls  upon  men  whensoever  they  enter  the 
precincts  of  the  sacred  volume.  It  is  holy  ground.  It 
is  needless  to  enlarge  upon  this  characteristic  effect  of 
the  Bible.  The  Revelation  of  John,  if  we  mistake  not, 
is  less  an  apocalypse  of  the  details  of  prophecy  than 
an  impressionistic  unfolding,  with  many  symbols  and 
portents,  of  the  glory  of  God,  and  of  the  exalted  sta- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ,  whose  right  it  is  to'  reign,  be- 
cause he  was  slain  and  has  redeemed  men  to  God  by 
his  blood. 

It  is  important  to  notice,  moreover,  that  this  sense  of 
awe  in  Scripture  is  accompanied  by  a  corresponding 
impression  of  the  mysterious  import  of  human  life. 
And  it  is  this  especially  that  literature  seizes  for  its 
use  in  imaginative  creations.  To  this  effect  of  Biblical 
idealism  in  fact  imaginative  minds  are  acutely  sensi- 
tive. They  are  aware  of  this  Scriptural  sense  of  awe 
and  mystery  in  respect  of  nature  and  human  life.  An 
impression  of  sacredness  rests  upon  them. 

We  may  cite  an  incident  of  the  Scripture  to  illus- 
trate what  we  mean  by  the  sense  of  awe  and  mystery. 


BIBLICAL  IDEALISM  IN  LITERATURE      261 

When  Moses  saw  an  acacia  bush  flame  out  suddenly 
at  his  feet  one  day,  as  he  led  his  flock  along  the  slopes 
of  the  mountain,  he  turned  aside  to  ''see  this  great 
sight,  why  the  bush  is  not  burnt."  Thus  there  came 
upon  the  shepherd  in  the  very  midst  of  his  ordinary 
toil  a  sudden  realization  of  the  awesomeness  of  the 
place.  He  knew  without  being  told  that  the  place 
whereon  he  stood  was  holy  ground.  There  must  also 
have  come  to  his  mind  a  new  and  unwonted  feeling  of 
the  mystery  and  profound  importance  of  life.  Hence- 
forth he  could  not  be  the  same.  From  this  experience 
in  fact  dates  his  call  to  the  stupendous  task  that  was 
before  him.  It  was  an  impressive  view  of  the  mys- 
terious sacredness  of  human  life  that  had  been  given 
to  him.  He  had  seen  the  bush  that  was  not  consumed, 
he  had  looked  with  his  eyes  upon  a  symbol  of  Reality. 
The  incident  in  its  meaning  helps  us  to  understand  the 
attitude  of  literature  towards  life,  particularly  as  that 
attitude  has  been  influenced  by  the  Bible.  Many  of 
our  writers  have  seen  the  Burning  Bush,  they  are  im- 
pressed alike  with  the  awe  and  mystery  of  life.  They 
are  not  indifferent  to  the  sacredness  of  the  ground 
on  which  they  stand. 

To  this  sense  of  Scriptural  awe  and  mystery  can 
be  traced,  as  we  believe,  much  of  the  sentiment  of  our 
English  writers,  especially  our  poets.  How  often  we 
are  conscious  in  our  most  reverent  poets  of  the 
presence  of  a  Biblical  wonder.  The  mystery  of  life 
holds  them,  even  transfigures  them.  There  is  a  halo 
even  about  the  commonplace.  The  soul  most  of  all  is 
touched  with  strange  glory.  Round  about  life,  despite 
its  problems  and  enigmas,  is  thrown  a  vast  Protection. 
The   Apostle   Paul   boldly   made   his   appeal    to   the 


262     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

identity  of  feeling  between  religion  and  literature, 
when  he  spoke  to  the  men  of  Athens  on  Mars  Hill  of 
how  men  everywhere  seek  God — **if  haply  they  might 
feel  after  him  and  find  him,  though  he  is  not  far  from 
each  one  of  us,  for  in  him  we  live,  and  move,  and 
have  our  being,  as  certain  even  of  your  own  poets 
have  said — 

'For  we  are  also  his  offspring*  "^ 

With  these  expressions  of  mysterious  import  and 
grandeur  in  life  we  are  familiar  in  literature  every- 
where. It  is  a  feeling  that  is  fed  upon  the  Bible.  If 
on  the  one  hand  life  appears  awed  in  the  presence  of 
so  much  that  is  mysterious,  on  the  other  hand  it 
obtains  sublimity  through  association  with  mystery. 
For  the  mystery  does  not  strike  coldness  into  the  heart 
of  life,  it  produces  warmth.  Men  can  pray  even  if 
they  do  not  understand.  They  can  walk  by  faith  if 
not  by  sight.  They  can  enjoy  in  their  souls  the  com- 
fort of  a  strength  which  poets,  both  sacred  and  com- 
mon, are  likely  to  define  in  terms  of  the  Everlasting 
Arms.  Literature  like  the  Bible  has  this  message  for 
life — "Put  ol  thy  shoes  from  off  thy  feet,  for  the 
place  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy  ground." 

We  take  a  further  step  in  this  study  of  the  identity 
of  forces  when  we  note  the  element  of  longing  and 
passion  which  are  shared  by  the  Bible  and  literature. 
As  respects  the  Scripture  we  mean  that  spirit  of 
eagerness  for  life  which  is  everywhere  apparent  and 
which  communicates  itself  to  those  who  live  within 
its  pages.    The  effect  of  the  Bible  uniformly  is  to  pro- 

»Acts  17:27,  2& 


BIBLICAL  IDEALISM  IN  LITERATURE      263 

duce  a  certain  ardor  of  life,  a  noble  discontent  of 
things  as  they  are.  It  tends  to  awaken  the  faculties 
of  the  soul,  and  to  set  them  in  pursuit  of  high  ob- 
jectives. Life  takes  on  new  meaning  under  the  train- 
ing of  this  Book,  which  bids  the  soul  build  for  itself 
more  lordly  mansions  than  before.  We  speak  in  these 
terms  of  the  general  effect  of  the  Book  upon  men. 
One  who  reads  it  cannot  remain  still.  His  faculties 
are  quickened,  the  emotions  of  his  heart  are  stirred. 
Moreover — and  this  is  the  point  of  present  emphasis — 
he  finds  within  him  a  new  sense  of  the  worth  of  life, 
and  therewith  also  he  finds  a  strong  desire  to  fulfil  a 
new  career  for  the  soul.  This  experience  of  longing 
or  aspiration  in  the  Bible  is  not  unlike  the  experience 
we  have  with  other  books,  but  in  the  case  of  the  Bible 
we  associate  the  experience  with  the  soul's  destiny, 
that  is,  with  salvation.  It  seems  to  us  as  we  read  this 
Holy  Book  that  we  are  receiving  a  message  which  is 
fraught  with  more  than  temporal  meanings.  In  other 
words,  we  seem  to  discover  through  the  Scripture  the 
ultimate  something  of  our  soul's  desire  and  longing. 
This  we  believe  to  be  an  important  source  of  Biblical 
power,  in  that  the  Bible  answers  so  satisfactorily  the 
profound  feelings  of  the  soul.  As  we  have  remarked 
before,  it  is  deep  answering  unto  deep. 

Now  this  power  of  longing  in  the  Scripture  is  a 
contributing  element  in  literature.  In  the  case  of  Eng- 
lish literature  in  particular  we  can  trace  to  this  source 
something  of  the  fervor  and  passion  of  literary  power. 
We  mean,  of  course,  the  kind  of  passion  that  is  asso- 
ciated with  sober  and  exalted  views  of  life.  Under 
this  discipline  of  longing  or  passionate  desire  for  the 
best  things  to  which  the  soul  is  entitled,  life  is  no 


264     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

longer  a  May  day  of  pleasure,  it  is  a  battle-field,  an 
arena,  where  the  air  is  filled  with  calls  to  conflict. 

Our  best  books,  both  in  prose  and  poetry,  are  filled 
with  this  deep  sense  of  passion  for  life,  and  we  can- 
not but  feel  that  the  Bible  has  given  character  and  di- 
rection to  this  force.  Often  it  is  a  kind  of  "grim 
earnestness"  such  as  we  find  in  a  writer  like  Carlyle. 
It  is  the  old  Puritan  feeling  alive  and  at  work  again. 
Life  is  a  solemn  enterprise.  It  has  many  enigmas, 
and  much  darkness,  nevertheless  there  is  an  irresistible 
sense  of  oughtness  beneath  it.  There  is  no  evading  of 
responsibility,  no  discharge  in  the  warfare.  The  gage 
of  battle  is  laid,  and  the  soul  will  not  flinch.  This 
solemn  bent  of  the  mind  to  duty,  this  pressure  of  the 
life  task,  this  feeling  of  devoir  toward  the  Highest,  is 
a  characteristic  Biblical  strain  of  our  literature. 

Again  the  passion  of  literature  may  be  seen  in  the 
form  of  frank  and  eager  aspirations  of  the  mind.  It 
is  what  we  describe  usually  as  the  inspirational  quality 
in  a  thoroughly  good  book,  the  uplift  of  literature. 
It  is  the  tone  of  optimism  and  buoyancy  which  identi- 
fies itself  not  merely  with  enjoyment  but  with  genuine 
and  serious  purposes  of  life.  Under  this  influence 
men  come  to  feel  more  keenly  the  worth  of  living  and 
experience  a  fresh  joy  in  working.  The  burdensome- 
ness  of  their  tasks  is  lessened,  the  pressure  of  duty  is 
relieved.  Their  spirits  grow  young  and  buoyant.  We 
do  not  realize  how  far  out  into  life  the  hopes  of  the 
Bible  are  flung.  Biblical  optimism  is  a  literary  asset 
that  permeates  wide  areas  of  thought. 

Or  again  the  passion  of  literature  identifies  itself 
with  some  worthy  human  cause.  The  worth  of  life  is 
associated  with  definite  aims.    It  posits  freedom,  for 


BIBLICAL  IDEALISM  IN  LITERATURE      265 

example,  or  brotherhood,  or  social  reformation,  or 
justice,  or  sacrifice  in  some  one  of  many  forms.  The 
earnestness  of  literature  is  here  seen  in  the  light  of  in- 
tense moral  purpose.  Life  must  answer  in  terms  of 
stern  obligation.  The  old  cry  of  the  irresponsible — 
"Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?" — receives  a  mighty 
affirmative.  Life  takes  on  a  conscious  burden  of 
service,  and  rejoices  too  in  the  privilege  of  doing  so. 
It  goes  forth  to  explore  with  love  and  sympathy  the 
dark  precincts  of  the  world,  and  is  happy  if  it  can 
bring  home  again  anything  that  is  lost.  At  this  point 
we  observe  how  the  saving  instincts  of  the  Gospel 
emerge  in  literature.  Many  books  have  been  written 
under  the  influence  of  the  Bible  that  have  served  the 
purpose  of  "little  Gospels,"  spreading  the  truth  of 
salvation. 

But  the  power  of  that  which  we  have  called  Biblical 
idealism  is  deeper  than  the  vision  of  the  unseen, 
deeper  than  the  sense  of  awe,  deeper  than  the  force 
of  longing — it  is  also  the  power  of  spiritual  reverence. 

For  one  may  be  aware  of  the  presence  of  the  Un- 
seen, may  feel  a  sense  of  awe  and  mystery,  may  even 
be  thrilled  with  strange  longings  of  the  soul,  and  yet 
may  stop  short  of  conscious  worship.  The  Bible, 
however,  does  not  tolerate  this  lack  of  spiritual  thor- 
oughness— it  carries  us  on  to  the  definite  end  of  wor- 
ship. How  much  of  the  Scripture  is  devoted  to  this 
aim  we  well  know.  The  discipline  of  this  Book  tends 
constantly  toward  deliberate  faith  and  conscious 
praise  of  the  soul.  It  is  impossible  to  read  it  and  re- 
main indifferent  toward  Its  supreme  aim  of  a  worship- 
ful life.  Reverence  is  Its  high  law — even  more,  its 
pervasive  atmosphere.     It  tends  to  promote  in  men  a 


266     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

spiritual  frame  of  mind  and  to  produce  in  them  a 
positive  tendency  to  a  spiritual  life.  There  is  thus  in 
and  through  the  Scripture  a  spiritual  cultus  that  is 
ever  at  work  among  those  who  frequent  its  pages. 
The  extent  to  which  this  influence  operates  is  alto- 
gether beyond  calculation.  We  know  this — that  it 
works  like  leaven  in  the  meal,  like  ozone  in  the 
atmosphere.  If  this  influence  of  the  culture  power  of 
the  Bible  were  taken  away,  it  is  impossible  to  compute 
the  spiritual  loss  the  world  would  suffer. 

Let  us  now  contemplate  for  a  moment  the  effect 
upon  generations  of  readers  of  the  English  Bible  of 
such  a  discipline  in  worship.  We  should  expect  that 
it  would  produce  at  least  a  tendency  of  the  mind  to 
reverence.  We  should  suppose  that  it  might  even 
create  to  some  extent  an  attitude  of  spirituality.  This 
certainly  is  true  In  the  world  that  has  long  been  ac- 
quainted with  the  English  Bible — a  spiritual  view  of 
life  is  on  the  whole  the  prevailing  view.  There  are 
vast  unspiritual  areas  of  life,  and  even  massed  forms 
of  ignorance  and  unbelief — nevertheless  we  hold  it  to 
be  true  that  the  Bible  has  produced  among  multitudes 
of  English-speaking  people  what  may  be  called  a 
Biblical,  hence  spiritual,  point  of  view. 

What  reflection  now  do  we  find  of  the  spiritual 
point  of  view  in  English  literature  ?  Is  there  any  true 
"spirituality"  of  literature?  Is  there  a  spirit  in  litera- 
ture that  approaches  at  least  the  reality  of  Scriptural 
worship  and  praise?  We  are  not  now  thinking,  of 
course,  of  acknowledged  Christian  writers,  who  write 
out  of  the  fulness  of  their  devotion  to  Christian 
doctrine.  There  is  a  vast  literature  of  worship  of  this 
character  whose  indebtedness  to  the  Scripture  is  too 


BIBLICAL  IDEALISM  IN  LITERATURE      267 

obvious  to  require  mention  here.  We  are  thinking 
rather  of  those  whose  primary  devotion  is  to  Hterature 
and  to  Hterary  methods.  The  spirituality  of  the  Scrip- 
ture we  maintain  is  often  very  pronounced  even  in  the 
case  of  writers  who  do  not  regard  themselves  as 
bound  to  specific  doctrine. 

There  is  everywhere,  for  example,  in  literature  a 
prevailing  spirit  of  wonder  toward  the  facts  of  life. 
This  state  of  mind  is  at  least  friendly  to  worship — it  is 
often  the  very  vestibule  of  worship.  The  note  of 
praise  is  one  of  the  truest  notes  of  English  poetry. 
The  poets  cannot  refrain  from  voicing  the  thankful- 
ness of  the  heart  for  the  pervasive  good  of  the  world's 
life.  If  they  are  not  actually  found  upon  their  knees 
in  prayer  and  praise,  they  are  at  least  not  antagonistic 
to  the  spirit  of  reverence.  They  are  not  insenate 
to  the  universal  call  to  worship.  They  are  not  indif- 
ferent to  the  deep  sacredness  of  life.  This  sense  of 
gracious  wonder  toward  life  we  believe  to  be  one  of 
the  sincerest  elements  in  our  English  literature,  and  we 
believe  further  that  its  true  source  is  the  spirituality  of 
the  Bible. 

A  concrete  illustration  of  this  attitude  of  reverence 
in  literature  is  seen  in  the  view  of  the  world  and 
nature  that  is  common  among  writers  of  our  best 
literature,  especially  the  poets.  This  attitude  cannot 
be  better  described  than  as  an  Old  Testament  view  of 
nature.  The  feeling  of  delight  in  nature,  the  attitude 
of  tenderness  and  quiet  satisfaction,  the  sense  of 
eagerness  and  gladness,  "the  wild  joy  of  living,"  the 
mood  of  open  rejoicing  in  the  "wonder  and  bloom  of 
the  world" — these  phases  of  feeling  that  are  so  com- 
mon in  literature  seem  to  have  been  long  familiar  to 


268     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

us  among  the  writers  and  poets  of  the  Old  Testament. 

The  spirituaUty  of  literature  is  more  pronounced  in 
its  attitude  toward  the  soul  of  man.  The  influence  of 
Scriptural  teaching  is  here  very  powerful.  To  the 
makers  of  sincere  literature  the  soul  is  ever  sacred  and 
wonderful.  There  is  a  Biblical  solemnity  about  the 
way  in  which  our  best  writers  deal  with  the  career  of 
souls  in  this  world.  The  profound  seriousness  and 
honesty  of  English  literature  are  in  nothing  so  clearly 
pronounced  as  in  the  view  taken  of  the  majesty  of 
the  human  spirit.  In  this  absence  of  merely  casual 
treatment  of  spiritual  subjects,  this  lack  of  frivolity 
toward  such  solemn  facts  of  life  as  faith  and  doubt, 
grief  and  pain,  life  and  death,  we  trace  the  influence 
of  the  Scriptural  discipline  of  reverence. 

But  we  must  go  further.  We  find  that  the  spirit 
of  reverence  inculcated  by  generations  of  Biblical  in- 
fluence produces  in  the  most  trustworthy  areas  of 
our  English  literature  a  conscious  adoption  of  the 
friendship  and  support  of  a  Higher  Being.  With  the 
writers  who  have  looked  into  the  Face  of  the  Eternal, 
through  the  pages  of  the  Word  of  God,  Love  is  the 
primal  law  of  life,  and  nothing  can  shake  its  founda- 
tions. This  creed  of  Love  in  literature  is  one  of  the 
surest  and  most  lasting  effects  of  Biblical  idealism. 
The  echoes  of  this  creed  are  heard  in  many  pages  of 
our  English  poets,  who  have  felt  their  way  to  the 
heart  of  Deity — 

"He  trusted  God  was  love  indeed, 
And  love  creation's  final  law, 
Though  nature,  red  in  tooth  and  claw 
With  ravine,  shrieked  against  his  creed." 


BIBLICAL  IDEALISM  IN  LITERATURE      269 

The  very  agony  and  pain  of  life  of  which  litera- 
ture is  so  well  aware  does  but  send  many  sensitive 
hearts  to  the  refuge  of  Love.  The  sacrificial  element 
in  the  world's  life  may  after  all  find  its  highest  in- 
terpretation in  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary.  Thus  many 
writers,  reflecting  upon  life,  lead  us  back  to  Geth- 
semane  and  the  Cross — that  true  and  vital  refuge  for 
all  suffering  humanity.  The  poet  finds  Christ,  if  not 
through  theology — through  humanity. 

There  is  one  further  element  in  Biblical  idealism 
which  obtains  a  positive  reflection  in  literature.  This 
is  the  ever-present  emphasis  of  Destiny.  The  Bible 
never  contemplates  a  stone  wall — it  postulates  an  open 
door,  it  affirms  the  right  to  a  "projected  efficiency,**  it 
assumes  almost  without  argument  the  certainty  of  im- 
mortality. The  answer  to  this  Biblical  emphasis  of 
destiny  is  too  prevalent  in  English  literature  to  require 
demonstration.  Our  English  writers,  like  the  ealder- 
man  of  King  Edwin's  day,  are  ever  busy  with  the 
problem  of  the  sparrow's  flight.  "The  sparrow  flies  in 
at  one  door  and  tarries  for  a  moment  in  the  light  and 
heat  of  the  hearth- fire,  and  then  flying  forth  from  the 
other,  vanishes  into  the  wintry  darkness  whence  it 
came."  Is  this  all  ?  No,  this  is  not  all.  The  Bible  has 
a  further  answer,^ and  its  answer  has  been  reflected 
far  out  Into  the  world  of  literature. 

Hence  the  prophetic  element  with  which  we  are 
familiar  in  English  literature,  the  impressive  sense  of 
a  dawning  Tomorrow  that  will  be  greater  than  Today. 
Our  writers  are  not  all  believers  in  the  doctrine  of  im- 
mortality. But  few  of  them  have  been  able  to  divest 
themselves  of  the  command  of  the  future.  Some  in- 
deed, like  Saul,  are  found  among  the  prophets,  how:-* 


270     THE  BIBLE  IN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

ever  unwillingly.  It  is  just  this  prophetic  feeling  or 
instinct  for  the  future  in  literature,  this  Scriptural 
sensing  of  a  greater  and  better  day  for  humanity,  that 
registers  the  irresistible  effect  of  Biblical  idealism. 
The  early  English  welcomed  the  light  of  the  Holy 
Scripture  on  this  subject  of  destiny,  and  the  bright 
shining  of  that  light  has  never  faded  from  English 
literature  throughout  more  than  a  thousand  years. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


INDEX 

"Abt  Vogler/*  238. 

Acrostic  of  Cynewulf,  65. 

Adventure,  spirit  of,  fostered  by  Old  Testament,  59. 

Aelbert,  teacher  of  Alcuin  at  York,  80,  81. 

Aelfric,  tenth  century  writer.  His  Homilies  and  style.  Lives 
of  Saints  and  Colloquy.  Anglo-Saxon  versions  of  parts  of 
Bible,  102,  103. 

Aidan,  picturesque  poet-preacher,  43. 

Alcuin,  relation  to  European  culture,  80.  Bishop  Stubbs 
quoted,  80,  Note.  Educated  at  York,  80.  Scriptural  train- 
ing, 81.  Poem  on  "Saints  at  York,"  quoted,  81.  Called  to 
continent  by  Charles  the  Great  as  minister  of  education,  81, 
82.  Some  of  his  pupils,  82.  Did  not  witness  coronation  of 
Charles,  83.  Prof.  West's  description  of  Palace  School,  83. 
Famous  Capitulary  of  Charles,  84.  Did  strategic  thing  to 
teach  Charles,  84.  Latter  years  at  Tours,  85.  Wrote  letter 
to  Charles  about  "honey  of  Holy  Scriptures,"  85.  Scriptorium 
at  Tours  a  busy  place,  85.  Sent  four  gospels  to  Charlemagne, 
86. 

Aldhelm  of  Malmesbury,  49.  Singing  on  a  bridge,  50.  First 
translator  of  Psalms,  60. 

Alfred  the  Great,  Providentially  a  lover  of  the  Word,  87.  His 
great  glory,  88.  Tribute  of  his  biographer  Asser,  89.  En- 
thusiastic testimonies  of  historians,  89,  90.  Personal  history, 
90.  Love  of  literature  began  early,  90.  Danish  invasions, 
90.  Devastating  effects.  Literature  and  learning  especially 
suffered,  91.  Saw  needs  of  the  time,  91,  92.  Forerunner  of 
educators,  92.  His  Note-Book,  92.  Quotations  from  his 
Preface  to  Gregory's  Pastoral  Care,  93.  Conceived  idea  of 
vernacular  hterature,  93,  94.  Rapid  work  of  reconstruction, 
94.  Surrounded  himself  with  scholars,  94,  95.  Bible  had  a 
large  place  in  his  work,  95.  Difficult  barrier  of  language, 
96.  Four  major  translations,  96.  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle 
271 


272  INDEX 

under  Alfred  influenced  by  Hebrew  Chronicles,  96.    Broke 

down  Latin  barrier,  96,  97.     Dr.  F.  A.  March  on  Alfred's 

work,  97.     Gave  English  Uterature  a  biblical  type,  97. 
Anglo-Saxon    Chronicle   under    Alfred,    influenced   by    Hebrew 

Chronicles,  96. 
Anglo-Saxon  Gospels  in  Alfred's  time,  95. 
Anselm  and  the  school  at  Bee  in  France,  104. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  use  of  Bible,  221. 
Arthur,  King,  and  Round  Table.     Celtic  origin  of  legend,  106. 

Work  of  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  for  these  romances,  106,  107. 

Holy  Grail  grafted   on.     Work  of  Walter  Map,    107,    108. 

Sir  Thomas  Malory,  109. 
Asser,  biographer  of  King  Alfred,  88.     Tribute  to  his  patron,  89. 
Atonement,  often  imperfectly  recognized,  250. 
Augustine,  how  he  came  to  England,  36.     Brought  the  Bible, 

37.     Psalter  in  British  Museum,  38. 
Awe,  sense   of.     Effect   of  this   biblical   element  on  literature, 

260-262.     Mysterious  import  of  life,  260.     Moses  at  burning 

bush,  261.     Power  of  sentiment  in  poets,  261. 

Bede,  Venerable,  Story  of  Augustine,  36.  Story  of  Caedmon,  57, 
58.  "Father  of  English  learning,"  says  Burke.  75.  "Father 
of  our  national  education,"  75.  Personal  history,  75.  His 
Ecclesiastical  History,  76.  "Father  of  English  history"  his 
proudest  title,  76.  Compared  with  Ruskin,  76.  Roots  of 
literature  in  him,  76.     Monastery  in  Jarrow,  76.     His  studies 

77.  Inspired  by  Scripture,  77.     Last  scenes  of  his  life,  77, 

78.  Wordsworth's  tribute,  78.     Translation  of  John  lost  in 
Danish  invasions,  91. 

Benedict  Biscop  in  Northumbria.  England's  debt  to  him,  54. 
Teacher  of  Bede  at  Jarrow,  75. 

"Beowulf,"  early  poem  on  Conflict,  23. 

Bible,  Has  colored  thought,  16.  Ignorance  of  effects  of,  17. 
Produces  vital  thinking,  18.  Influence  on  language,  style  and 
expression,  25.  Simplicity,  26.  Dignifies  and  moralizes 
speech,  26.  Influence  described  by  Lounsbury,  27.  Currency 
of  spiritual  terms,  28.  Regulates  tone  of  literature,  29.  In 
schools,  Huxley,  29.  Atmosphere  and  popular  feeling,  29, 
30.  Relation  to  national  character,  30.  Furnishes  material 
of    experience,    31.    Unlimited    background    provided    for 


INDEX  273 

literature,  33.  Spirituality  in  life  and  literature  traced  to 
Bible,  33.  Sharpening  of  genius  of  people,  33.  Naturalized 
in  national  experience,  34.  How  it  came  to  England,  35-40. 
Intellectual  constructiveness  and  storehouse  of  emotion,  64. 
Special  example  of  its  influence  in  Caedmon,  58-60.  In 
Cynewulf,  68.  Naturalization  of  in  early  English  life,  68. 
Produced  early  scholars  and  teachers,  Bede  an  example,  74, 
75.  Fertilized  genius,  72.  Sound  of  Scripture,  73.  Influence 
on  Alcuin,  85.  Influence  on  King  Alfred,  95,  97,  98.  Stim- 
ulus to  making  of  books,  loi.  Influence  on  romantic  spirit 
of  Normans,  105.  Foimd  an  excellent  seed-plot  in  Arthurian 
legends,  106-108.  Produces  a  national  epic  in  story  of  Holy 
Grail,  no.  Media  of  commimication  producing  popular 
knowledge,  in.  Beginnings  of  dramatic  literature  in  Miracle 
Plays,  112.  Dramatic  material  in  Bible,  114,  115.  Influence 
on  Chaucer  and  Wyclif,  Chap.  XII.  The  printing  press 
served  it,  140,  141.  Wyclif 's  version  epoch-making,  143. 
Incident  at  coronation  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  149,  150.  Con- 
nection of  dates,  155.  Finality  of,  161.  Puritans  nourished 
on,  175.  Bible  and  imagination,  181.  Taught  Bunyan  to 
write,  190.  In  New  England,  192,  193.  Characteristics  of 
biblical  style,  "noble  naturalness,"  196.  Conversation, 
oratory,  197-203.  Biblical  sound  in  language,  202.  News- 
papers, 203.  Carlyle,  Ruskin,  Lowell,  204-209.  Fiction, 
209-216.  Dramatic  and  narrative  material,  211,212.  Theme 
and  plot,  212-216.  In  poetry,  217  seq.  Doctrine  in  litera- 
ture, 243,  254.  Biblical  Idealism,  Chap.  XIX.  Literature 
of  power,  255,  256.     Magnifies  worth  of  life,  263. 

Biblical  optimism,  264. 

Biblical  plots,  213-216. 

Biblical  poetry.  Characteristics  of,  218. 

Biblical  titles  for  books,  20^,  210. 

Book  of  Durrow,  43. 

Bowen,  on  effect  of  Authorized  Version  on  style,  197. 

Brooke,  Stopford  A.,  Religion  and  Literature,  15,  on  Norman 
Conquest,  104. 

Browning,  Robert,  use  of  Bible,  219,  222,  222-226.  Most  biblical 
of  poets,  223,  225.     Christology  of,  237,  238. 

Bunyan,  John.  Contrasted  with  Milton,  186.  His  slight  edu- 
cation, 187.    Natural  gifts.    His  imagination  fertile  soil  for 


274  INDEX 

Scripture,  187, 1 88.  Pilgrim's  Progress  monumental.  Macau- 
lay's  statement,  188.  Unforgettable  characters,  189.  Bible 
taught  him  to  write,  190.  "Living  Concordance"  of  Bible, 
190.  Father  of  English  novel,  191.  Pilgrim's  Progress  most 
beautiful  flower  of  Puritan  emotion,  191. 

Burke,  Edmund,  on  Bede,  75.     Use  of  Bible  in  public  speech,  199. 

Bums,  Robert,  strictness  of  moral  law,  249. 

Butler,  Nicholas  Murray,  Bible  needed  to  understand  English 
literature,  17,  Note. 

Caedmon,  earliest  of  English  poets,  57.  His  story  told  by  Bede, 
57,  58.  The  Paraphrase,  58.  Bible  inspired  him,  59.  An 
early  Milton,  59.  His  sacred  epics,  60.  "Glory-Father," 
61.     Poems  in  West-Saxon  form  in  Alfred's  time,  95. 

Caine,  Hall,  indebtedness  to  Bible,  213. 

Campbell,  Douglas,  on  Puritanism,  173. 

Canterbury,  early  Christian  center,  37.  School  established  by 
Theodore,  54. 

Capitulary  of  Charles  the  Great,  shows  influence  of  Bible,  84. 
Called  "first  general  charter  of  education,"  84. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  on  Puritanism,  173.  Himself  a  modem  Puri- 
tan, 192.  Never  parts  company  with  Bible,  205.  Prophetic 
quality,  205.     Stern  earnestness,  264. 

Carolingian  school,  relation  to  Northumbria,  80. 

Chapman,  E.  M.,  on  influence  of  monastic  houses,  47. 

Charles  the  Great,  calls  Alcuin,  81.  His  Palace  School,  83. 
Famous  capitulary,  84.  This  maker  of  history  loved  the 
Bible,  85.     Received  four  Gospels  from  Alcuin,  86. 

Chaucer,  Importance  of  his  period,  122-124.  Compared  with 
Langland  and  Wyclif,  124.  Discussion  of  his  religious  views. 
Not  a  theologian,  but  a  poet  of  nature,  124-126.  Setting 
of  Canterbury  Tales  religious.  Pilgrimage  idea  biblical,  126. 
Prof.  Lounsbury  on  his  knowledge  of  Bible,  127.  Estimate 
of  women  biblical,  127.  Reticence  in  doctrine,  128.  Spiritual 
touch  in  characters,  128.  Parish  priest  full  of  biblical  color, 
129,  130.  On  Christ,  130.  Three  of  Canterbury  Tales 
distinctly  religious,  130-132. 

Christ  in  English  literature.  Caedmon 's  "Christ,"  60.  Cyne- 
wulf's  "Christ,"  64.  "Proper  baim  of  God,"  67.  Wonderful 
description,  68,  69.     Passages  quoted,  69-71.     Chaucer  on 


INDEX  275 

Christ,  130.  The  Cross,  132.  Langland's  picture  in  "Piers 
Plowman,"  135-137.  His  temptation  in  Milton's  "Paradise 
Regained,"  185.  Christology  of  poetry,  235-239.  Browning 
and  Tennyson,  237,  238.     Vitality  of  Christ's  name,  239. 

"  Christ "  of  Caedmon,  60.  "  Christ "  of  Cynewulf ,  64.  "  Oldest 
Christiad  of  modem  Europe,' '  66.  Divided  into  three  parts. 
Passages  quoted,  69-71.  Judgment  scene,  70.  Heaven  de- 
scribed, 70,  71.     Poem  steeped  in  Scripture,  71. 

Christianity,  genius  for  literature,  15.  Rapid  spread  in  England, 
41.     In  Northumbria,  41. 

"Christmas  Eve,"  Picture  of  Son  of  Man,  237. 

Christology  of  poets,  235. 

Church,  "nursing  mother  of  literature,"  48.  "Birthplace  of 
English  literature,"  48.  Put  stamp  of  Scripture  on  literature, 
100.     Suppressed  drama  and  later  revived  it,  1.13. 

Clarke,  Sidney  W.,  on  religious  origin  of  English  theatre,  113. 

Clovis,  King,  at  Passion  Play,  39. 

Cnut,  King,  inspired  by  Christian  song,  loi. 

Columba,  43.     Book  of  Durrow  and  Latin  hymns,  43. 

Consolations  of  Philosophy,  by  Boethius,  one  of  Alfred's  four 
major  translations,  96. 

Conversation,  influence  of  Bible  on,  197,  198.  Companion- 
ship of  Bible,  198.     Unbidden  entrance  of  Bible,  202. 

Cook,  Prof.  A.  S.,  references  to  his  valuable  book,  Biblical 
Quotations  in  Old  English  Prose  Writers,  102,  103.  On  Au- 
thorized Version,  153,  also  Note.  On  enrichment  of  English 
language  by  Bible,  195.  On  "noble  naturalness  of  Bible," 
196,  also  Note.     On  allusions  in  books,  210. 

Cox,  S.  S.,  Sermon  on  Mount  in  public  speech,  199. 

Cromwell,  OUver,  Use  of  Old  Testament,  176.  Influenced  by 
Psalms,  177. 

Crucifixion  in  mediaeval  plays,  116. 

Cuthbert,  "most  lovable  of  English  saints,"  44.  His  poetic 
sensibiUty,  44.  Green  on  Cuthbert's  country,  44.  Gospel 
of  John,  44.     Last  hours,  44.      "Gospels  of  St.  Cuthbert,"  45. 

Cynewulf,  uncertainties  that  exist  about  him,  63.  Cycle  of 
religious  and  scriptural  verse,  64.  His  "Judith"  based  on 
Apocrypha.  "Juliana,"  "Christ,"  and  "Elene,"  64.  Acros- 
tic quoted  from  Bishop  Stubbs,  65  Note.  Prof.  Cook's 
theory  of,  65.    An  educated  man,  unlike  Caedmon,  65.    The 


276  INDEX 

Exeter  Book  contains  his  "Christ,"  65,  66.  Early  Tennyson 
or  Browning,  66.  His  poetry  differs  from  pagan  poetry,  66. 
Passage  on  "the  proper  bairn  of  God,"  67.  Mind  filled  with 
language  and  spirit  of  Bible,  68.  Wonderful  description  of 
Christ,  68,  69.  Passages  from  his  "Christ"  quoted,  69-71. 
First  dawning  of  English  drama,  says  Stubbs,  69.  Judgment 
scene,  70.  Heaven  described,  70,  71.  His  mind  steeped 
in  Scripture,  95.  Poems  in  West-Saxon  form  in  Alfred's 
time,  95. 

"Daniel"  of  Caedmon,  60. 

"Decameron"  of  Boccaccio,  27. 

Destiny,  emphasis  of  in  Scripture,  produces  prophetic  elements 

in  literature,  269,  270. 
Doctrine,   Biblical,  in  literature.     Doctrine  of  God,  243-247. 

Sin  and  Punishment,  243-250.     Atonement,  250,  251.     Im- 

mortaUty,  251,  252.     Prayer,  253,  254. 
Drama,  Greek  and  Roman,  religious  origin,  112. 
Dramatic  instinct  in  humanity,  112.     Laid  hold  of  Bible,  114 

115. 

Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde,  probably  suggested  by  Judas  Iscariot, 

215. 
Dunstan,  Saint,  lover  of  literature,  carried  on  work  of  King 
Alfred,  loi,  102.     His  famous  harp,  102. 

Ecclesiastes,  Tennyson's  poems  as  comment  on,  228. 

Ecclesiastical  History,  by  Bede,  76.  One  of  Alfred's  four  major 
translations,  96. 

Education,  popular,  a  Puritan  inheritance,  174.     Bible  in,  209. 

Edwin,  King  of  Northumbria,  Baptism,  41.  The  sparrow's 
flight,  42. 

Egbert,  founded  school  and  library  at  York,  80. 

"Elene"  of  Cynewulf,  64. 

Eliot,  George,  on  Ruskin  as  a  prophet,  206.  Her  three  master- 
pieces bibHcal,  213.  Romola,  215.  Did  not  know  the  Cross, 
216. 

Eloquence,  two  kinds  of,  202,  203. 

Emerson,  on  people  as  source  of  hterature,  30. 

English  history.  Shaping  of  events,  21.  Blending  of  races,  22. 
Epochal  changes,  24.    Importance  of  seventh  and  eightl^ 


INDEX  m 

centuries,  45,  72-74.  Remarkable  transformation  wrought 
by  monastic  influence,  48.  Age  of  Alfred,  Chap.  IX.  Norman 
Conquest,  Chap.  X.  Fourteenth  century  transitional,  122, 
123.  Fifteenth  century  preparatory,  140.  Printing  press  in 
England,  140.  Tremendous  change,  141.  New  Learning  in 
England,  141.  Shakespeare's  England  biblical,  156.  Great 
change  in  Puritan  England  as  respects  Bible,  177,  178. 

English  language.  Formation  of,  22.  "Best  result  of  confusion 
of  tongues,"  23.  Influenced  by  Bible,  25-28.  Enriched  by 
Bible  thirteen  himdred  years,  195.     Biblical  sound,  202. 

English  literature.  A  majestic  instrument,  19.  Magnificent 
background  of,  19.  Relation  to  spiritual  progress,  20.  Bible 
regulates  tone  of,  29.  Spirit  is  prophetic,  Gardiner,  30. 
Spiritual  characteristics  of  traced  to  Bible,  33.  Celtic  in- 
fusion, 43.  Background  of,  61,  63.  Simple  beginnings  in 
oral  teaching,  72,  73.  Strikes  its  roots  in  Venerable  Bede, 
76.  Beginnings  of  a  national  literature  in  time  of  King  Alfred, 
87,  88.  Biblical  type  given  to  it  by  him,  97.  Tardy  progress 
of  literatvu-e  explained  by  difikulties,  99.  Effect  of  printing 
press,  141.  Age  of  Wyclif  a  new  era,  146.  Prophetic  qual- 
ity, Carlyle,  205.     Spirituality  of,  266.     Spirit  of  wonder,  267. 

English  mind,  Constitution  of,  20.  Spiritual  bent  of,  21.  Na- 
tional genius  spiritual,  34. 

English  people,  "People  of  a  Book,"  21.  Important  events  of 
history,  21.  Composite,  22.  Romantic  genius  and  moral 
earnestness,  22.  Heathen  imaginings,  23.  Spiritual  genius 
of,  34- 

English  scholars,  produced  by  Bible,  74.  Bede  a  notable  example, 
75-78. 

Enghsh  style,  influenced  by  Bible.     Saintsbuiy  and  Bowen,  196. 

English  tragedies,  profoimdly  biblical,  249. 

Erasmus,  his  Greek  Testament,  141. 

Ethelbert,  King  of  Kent,  reception  of  Augustine's  party,  37,  38. 
His  conversion,  38. 

Exeter  Book,  contains  Cynewulf's  "Christ,"  66. 

"Exodus"  of  Caedmon,  60. 

Faith  and  imagination,  259. 

Fiction,  English,  209-216.  Biblical  titles,  209,  210.  Mr. 
Britling,  211.     The  Inner  Shrine,  211.     Dramatic  and  nar- 


278  INDEX 

ratlve  material,  211,  212.  Theme  and  plot,  212-216.  Hall 
Caine,  George  Eliot,  213.  Blibical  plots,  213-216.  Tlie 
Scarlet  Letter,  213,  214,  216.  David  and  Goliath,  Ruth,  214. 
Old  Testament  Romances,  215.  Judas  Iscariot  and  Romola^ 
215.     Problem  stories,  216.     Limitations  of  fiction,  216. 

Florence  of  Worcester  on  King  Alfred,  89. 

Freeman,  E.  A.,  on  King  Alfred,  90. 

Froude,  James  A.,  Bible  a  liberal  education,  15.  On  Tyndale's 
Bible,  147. 

Gardiner,  J.,  on  Wycllf's  Bible,  145. 

"Genesis"  of  Caedmon,  60. 

Genius,  sensitiveness  of,  157. 

Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  called  first  story  writer  in  England. 
Passed  on  story  of  King  Arthur,  106.  His  Historia  epoch- 
making,  107. 

"Glory  Father"  by  Caedmon,  61. 

"Golden  Gospels"  now  in  an  American  collection,  55. 

"Great  Lyric,"  Hebrew  poetry  called  this,  218. 

Green,  J.  R.,  On  Shakespeare,  22.  On  Thanet,  35.  On  Irish 
missionaries,  42.  On  Cuthbert's  country,  44.  On  monastic 
institutions,  46.  On  conventional  figures  of  history,  62. 
On  Bede,  76,  77.  On  King  Alfred,  89.  On  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle  under  Alfred,  96.  On  Saint  Dimstan,  loi.  On 
the  printing  press,  140.  On  popular  enthusiasm  created  by 
versions,  150,  151. 

Gregory,  sending  of  Augustine  to  England,  36. 

Guest,  M.  J.,  on  paucity  of  books  in  Alfred's  day,  88  Note. 

Hadrian,  at  Canterbury  with  Theodore,  53. 

Hawthorne,  N.,  a  modem  Puritan,  193. 

Hazlitt,  W.,  on  translation  of  the  Bible,  152. 

Henry,  Patrick,  use  of  Bible  in  public  speech,  199. 

Heroism,  a  Puritan  inheritance,  180. 

Hilda  of  Whitby,  a  strong  personality,  56. 

History  of  the  World,  by  Orosius,  one  of  Alfred's  four  major 

translations,  96. 
Hoar,  Senator,  use  of  words  from  Ruth  in  public  speech,  200. 

Also  Note. 
Holy  Grail,  story  of,  grafted  on  to  Arthurian  romance.     Influence 


INDEX  279 

of  Walter  Map,  107,  108.  Layamon's  "Brut,"  108.  Sir 
Thomas  Malory,  109.  J.  R.  Lowell's  "Vision  of  Sir  Launfal," 
109.  Many  writers  use  the  story,  109.  Has  produced  a 
rich  harvest  in  English  literature,  no.  Almost  a  national 
epic,  no. 

Himior,  instance  of  in  Miracle  Play,  120. 

Hutton,  John  A.,  on  Bible  as  literature  of  power,  256. 

Huxley,  Thomas,  on  Bible  in  schools,  29.    On  English  Bible,  154. 

Idealism,  Biblical,  meaning  vital  ideas  in  Bible  which  are  com- 

mimicated   to  literature,   256.     Vision  of  Unseen,   257-260. 

Profound  sense  of  awe  and  mystery,  260-262.     Longing  and 

passion,    262-265.     Power   of   spiritual   reverence,    265-269. 

Emphasis  of  destiny,  269,  270. 
"Idylls  of  the  King,"  Nearness  of  God,  246.     Sin,  250,  251. 
Imagination,  Puritan  gift  of,  Macaulay's  statement,   180.     In 

conversation,  198.     Faith  and  imagination,  259. 
Immortality,  Chaucer  on,  128.     Doctrine  of  in  literature,  251, 

252.    Two  major  poems  on,  252.    Command  of  future,  269, 

270. 
"In  Memorian,"  219,  226,  238,  252. 
Inner  Shrine,  use  of  Ruth,  211. 
Irish  Church,  letters  and  arts  in,  43. 
Irish   missionaries,    42.     Forerunnen    of   poetic   literature,   43. 

Columba,  43.     Aidan,  43.     Lamed  on  their  influence,  46. 

Jarrow,   Monastery   of,   founded  by   Benedict   Biscop,   Bede's 

home,  75.     Suffered  from  Danish  invasions,  91. 
Jesus,  story  of  life  as  related  to  experience,  32. 
John's  Gospel,  Cuthbert  reading,  44.     Bede  translating  it  when 

he   died,    77.     Bede's   translation   probably   lost   in    Danish 

invasions,  91. 
Joseph,  story  of,  as  a  formula  of  experience,  31. 
Judgment,  scene  of,  in  Cynewulf's  "Christ,"  70. 
"Juliana"  of  Cynewulf,  64. 
Jusserand,  J.  J.,  on  growth  and  decay  of  early  religious  drama, 

118.     On  Langland's  abimdant  use  of  Scripture,  134. 

Kingsley,  Charles,  on  Carlyle's  French  Revolution,  205. 
Knowledge,  inferior  to  faith,  243.     Inferior  to  love,  252. 


280  INDEX 

Lancelot,  classic  example  of  scriptural  teaching,  250. 

Lanfranc,  his  school  at  Bee  in  France,  104. 

Langland,  William,  the  John  Bunyan  and  Thomas  Carlyle  of  his 
age,  132.  A  monk,  yet  criticised  church.  Note  of  social 
passion  in  a  restless  century,  133.  His  poem  steeped  in 
Scripture,  134.  "Piers  Plowman"  a  pilgrimage  like  "Canter- 
bury Tales,"  134.  Account  of  the  poem  with  quotations, 
134-137-  Remarkabletransformationof  "Piers,"  135.  Christ 
the  real  Master  Workman  and  Social  Emancipator,  136. 
Beautiful  lines  about  Christ,  message  of  His  humanity,  136. 
Vision  of  Christ's  Cross,  137.  Prof.  Skeat  on. sublime  picture 
of  Christ's  death,  137. 

Language  and  morality,  26,  29. 

Lanier,  Sidney,  on  nearness  of  God,  236.  "Ballad  of  Trees  and 
the  Master,"  "The  Crystal,"  236. 

Lamed,  on  Irish  missionaries,  46. 

Latin  language,  long  thralldom  of,  88.  Barrier  of  broken  by  Eang 
Alfred,  96.     Bible  in  Latin  (Vulgate)  had  long  sway,  142,  143. 

Layamon,  poet-priest,  his  "Brut."  Pioneer  writer  of  English 
romance,  108. 

Learning  in  Frankland,  change  wrought  in  by  Alcuin,  82. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  his  use  of  Bible,  200,  201 .  Gettysburg  speech, 
Second  Inaugural,  speech  at  Springfield,  201. 

Lindisfame,  "Holy  Island,"  43.     "Lindisfame  Gospels,"  45. 

Literature.  Relation  to  religion,  15.  Product  of,  16.  What 
is  literature?  16.  Ignorance  of  sources,  17.  Close  to  life, 
18.  Medium  of  approach,  19.  Relation  to  common  people, 
30.  Literature  and  experience,  31.  Interests  allied  to  those 
of  religion,  242.  Yet  not  equivalent,  242.  Test  of,  255. 
Transcendentalism  of,  259.  Attitude  of  towards  life  illus- 
trated, 261.  Moral  earnestness,  265.  Reverence  and  wonder 
in,  266,  267. 

"Little  Gospels"  in  literature,  265. 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  use  of  Bible,  especially  in  simile,  234. 

Longing  and  Passion,  sense  of  in  Bible,  reflected  in  literature, 
262-265.  Best  books  characterized  by  this,  264.  Aspira- 
tions linked  to  a  cause,  264,  265. 

Lounsbury,  Thomas  R.,  on  influence  of  Bible  on  language,  27. 
On  Chaucer's  knowledge  of  Bible,  127,  On  Langland  as  a 
Puritan,  133, 


INDEX  281 

Love,  creed  of  in  literature  reflects  Bible,  268. 

Lowell,    James    Russell,    on    the    English    language,    23.     His 

"Vision  of  Sir  Launfal"  a  beautiful  Christian  lesson,   109. 

On   New  England  school-house,    175.     Examples  of  use  of 

Bible,  208,  209. 

Macaulay,  Lord,  on  statesmen  of  Elizabeth's  time,  156.  On 
Puritans,  173.  Statement  about  books  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  179.  On  Puritan  imagination,  180.  On  Pilgrim's 
Progress,  188. 

Malory,  Sir  Thomas,  his  Morte  d* Arthur,  forerunner  of  Tenny- 
sons  "Idylls,"  109. 

Map,  Walter,  put  spirituality  into  Arthurian  legends,  107. 

March,  Dr.  F.  A.  on  work  of  King  Alfred,  97. 

Milton,  John,  influenced  by  Caedmon,  59.  Tempted  to  choose 
Holy  Grail  for  m^jor  poem,  109.  Personal  characteristics, 
180.  Flower  of  Puritansim,  181.  Chose  his  epic  from  Bible, 
182.  M.  Arnold  on  Milton,  182.  "Paradise  Lost"  contains 
much  Scripture,  183.  Sweep  of  his  imagination,  184.  His 
philosophy  of  the  Fall,  184.  "Paradise  Regained"  stages 
temptation  of  Jesus,  185.  "Samson  Agonistes"  forenmner 
of  many  Scriptural  dramas,  186. 

Miracle  Plays,  Mysteries,  Moralities,  "a  unique  phenomenon" 
containing  roots  of  dramatic  Uterature,  112.  Answered  to 
an  exigency  in  life  of  church,  113.  Dramatic  instinct  laid 
hold  of  Bible,  adapted  and  visualized  it,  114,  115.  Tragic 
scenes  of  Bible  used,  116.  Paved  way  for  drama  of  future, 
116.  Normans  furnished  germ,  117.  Earliest  date  in  twelfth 
century,  118.  First  acted  in  churches,  later  on  the  streets, 
118,  119.  Clergy  first  actors,  then  guilds.  Language  of 
people  used,  119.  Pageants  or  movable  theatres,  1 19.  Several 
cycles,  Chester,  York,  Coventry,  etc.  Subjects  assigned  to 
appropriate  guilds,  119,  120.  Realism  of  the  plays,  120. 
Links  of  connection  with  Elizabethan  drama,  121. 

Monastic  institutions,  a  Providence  of  history,  45.  Great  names 
added  to  English  history,  46.  Green  in  his  Making  of  England, 
46.  Old  monastic  saying  about  books,  47.  Seminaries  of 
learning,  47.  The  Scriptorium,  47.  Chapman  on  influence  on 
letters,  47.  Montalembert  in  Monks  of  the  West,  48.  Im- 
pulse to  intellectual  life,  48.    Wandering  clergy  and  min- 


282  INDEX 

strels,  49.  Psalms  in  monastic  life,  51.  Popular  infusion  of 
Biblical  knowledge,  51.  Intensive  culture  that  fed  upon 
Scripture,  63.  Produced  great  teachers,  Bede  a  notable 
example,  73-78.  Fine  arts  germinated  here,  74.  Alcuin's 
Scriptorium  at  Tours,  85. 

Montalembert  on  monastic  institutions,  48. 

Moralities,  see  Miracle  Plays. 

Morley,  on  Aelfric,  102. 

Mr.  Britling,  211. 

Mysteries,  see  Miracle  Plays. 

Mystery,  sense  of,  in  life,  fed  by  Bible.     Biblical  wonder  in 
literature,  261,  262. 

Nature,  Old  Testament  delight  in,  208. 

New  England,  Biblical  atmosphere  of,  192,  193.  Early  life  of 
by  Warner,  232. 

New  Testament,  Erasmus*  Greek  edition,  141. 

Newman,  on  "grave,  majestic  language"  of  Bible,  202. 

Newspapers,  Bible  in,  203. 

Norman  Conquest.  Coming  of  Normans  a  powerful  influence 
on  English  literature,  103.  Their  history,  103.  Did  not 
bring  much  literature  to  England,  but  the  capacity  for  lit- 
erature, 104.  Romance  came  with  Normans,  105.  Growth 
of  Arthurian  romance  followed  Conquest,  105,  106.  Normans 
brought  germ  of  Miracle  Play,  117. 

Northumbrian  schools,  54.  Work  of  Northumbria  for  Chris- 
tianity, 54.  Bishop  Stubbs  on  the  northern  schools,  55. 
Suffered  from  Danish  invasions,  91. 

Note-Book  of  King  Alfred,  92,  96. 

Old  Testament,  material  for  mediaeval  dramatists,  115.  In- 
fluenced Puritans,  176.  Influenced  Carlyle,  205.  Ruskin, 
208.     View  of  nature,  267. 

Oral  teaching,  influence  of,  72,  73. 

Oratory,  influence  of  Bible  on,  198-203. 

"Our  Master"  a  biblical  study,  233. 

"Palace  of  Art"  interprets  parable  of  Je-^^us,  229,  230. 
Palace  School  of  Charles  the  Great  at  Aachen.    Prof.  West's 
description,  83. 


INDEX  t88 

Pancoast,  Henry  S.,  on  early  Saxon  singers,  24. 

Passion,  biblical,  in  literature,  See  Longing. 

Passion  Ptay,  stirvival  erf  medicaval  drama,  116. 

"Pastoral  Care"  of  Gregory.  King  Alfred's  Preface  to,  93. 
One  of  his  four  major  translations,  96. 

PauKnus,  missionary  in  Northumbria,  described,  41. 

Peace  through  the  Bible  a  ministry  of  the  Unseen,  258,  259. 

Pilgrimage,  idea  of  is  biblical,  126.     Bunyan's  use  of  it,  190. 

Poetry,  English,  most  Christian  part  of  literature,  217.  Two 
reasons,  217,  218.  Bible  woven  into,  219.  Examples  of 
reference,  220,  221.  Matthew  Arnold,  221.  Examples  of 
biblical  theme,  221.  Spirituality  of  poets,  222.  Browning, 
222-226.  Tennyson,  226-231.  Whittier,  233,  234.  Long- 
fellow, 234.  Christology  of,  235-239.  Doctrine  in.  Chap. 
XVin.     Sentiment  and  wonder  of,  261,  262. 

Poets,  leaders  in  the  spirit,  217,  219.  Spirituality  of,  218,  222. 
Susceptible  to  lightest  touch  of  Scripture,  23 1 .  Not  theologians, 
242,  243.  No  difficulty  with  incarnation,  246.  Immanence 
taken  from  Bible,  247.  On  Prayer,  254.  Sentiment  and 
wonder  traced  to  Bible,  261,  262.     Poets  and  Praise,  267. 

Popular  feeling  and  atmosphere  created  by  Bible,  29,  30. 

Printing  Press,  in  service  of  Bible,  140-  William  Caxton  set 
up  press  in  England,  140. 

Prophetic  quality  in  literature,  Carlyle,  205.  Ruskin,  206. 
Related  to  destiny  in  Scripture,  269,  270. 

Prose,  English,  effect  of  Bible  on,  195,  196,  204.  Carlyle,  Rus- 
Idn  and  Lowell,  204-209.     Fiction,  209-216. 

Prothero,  R.  E.,  on  Psalms  among  the  Puritans,  177. 

Providence  in  history,  20.  Providence  in  Alcuin's  life,  82. 
Shown  in  fact  that  King  Alfred  was  lover  of  Bible,  87.  In 
fourteenth   century,    122.     Renaissance   and   printing   press, 

141.  Strange  delay   in   coming   of  vernacular   translations, 

142,  143.     Incident  at  coronation  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  149, 
150.     Connection  of  dates,  155. 

Psalter,  Augustine's  reputed  copy  in  British  Museum,  38.  Influ- 
ence of  Psalms,  50.  Psalter  of  Aldhelm,  50.  Prothero  quoted, 
50,  51.  Psalms  in  daily  life,  51.  Paraphrases  of  Psalms 
by  Cynewulf,  64.  Studied  by  Alcuin,  81.  King  Alfred  and 
Psalms,  92,  95.  Reputed  Psalter  of  Alfred  in  British  Mu- 
seimi,  95  Note.     Psalms  among  the  Puritans,  176,  177. 


284  INDEX 

Puritans,  Influence  on  speech,  27.  Misrepresented.  Testi- 
monies, 173.  Worid-wide  mission,  174.  Popular  education 
a  Puritan  inheritance,  174.     Profound  sense  of  higher  power, 

175.  Nourished  on  Bible,  175,  176.     Thought  in  terms  of  it, 

176.  Influence  of  Psalms,  176,  177.  Great  change  in  Eng- 
land as  respects  Bible,  177,  178.  Mystical  but  practical,  179. 
Puritan  heroism  an  inheritance,  180.  Gift  of  imagination,  180. 
John  Milton,  180-186.  John  Bunyan,  186-191.  Thomas 
Carlyle  and  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  modem  Puritans,  192,  193. 
Puritanism  in  New  England,  192.  Description  of  biblical  at- 
mosphere of  New  England  by  Mrs.  H.  B.  Stowe,  193  Note. 

Reformation,  Protestant,  142. 

Religion,  relation  to  literature,  15,  16.     Called  "serious  poem" 

by  Taine,  21.     Religion  and  drama,  112. 
Revelation  of  John,  26.     Impressionistic  picture,  260. 
Reverence,  spiritual,  power  of  in  Bible  communicated  to  liter- 

ture,  265,  269.     Discipline  of  worship  and  praise,  265,  266. 

Spirit  of  wonder  friendly  to  worship,  267.     Old  Testament 

feeling  toward  nature,  267.  Attitude  toward  the  soul,  268. 
Revivals  of  learning,  three  in  nvunber,  79.  Renaissance,  141. 
Richardson,  Abby  S.,  on  the  effect  of  Bible  in  making  English 

literature,  39. 
"Ring  and  the  Book,"  most  biblical  poem  in  the  language,  224, 

225. 
Romola  and  Judas  Iscariot,  215.     Deals  with  sin,  248. 
Ruskin,  John,  use  of  Bible.     Example  from  "St.  Mark's  Rest," 

206.    His  own  explanation  of  his  style,  207,  208.    Reverence, 

208. 

Saintsbury,  on  effect  of  Authorized  Version  on  style,  196.     On 

literary  riches  of  Bible,  212. 
"Satan"  of  Caedmon,  60. 

"Saul,"  notable  scene,  237.     Doctrine  of  present  Christ,  238. 
Scarlet  Letter,  product  of  Puritanism,  193.     See  also  213,  214, 

216,  248. 
Scholasticism  and  the  universities,  79. 
Scop,  Saxon  ministrel,  24. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  quotation   from  The  Abbot  about  scriptural 

plays,  115. 


INDEX  285 

Scriptorium  in  monasteries,  47.  Alcuin's  at  Tottrs,  85.  Kind 
of  work  done  in  these  eariy  literary  workshops,  loa 

Scudder,  Miss  Vida  D.,  on  early  drama  as  biblical,  117.  On 
Cariyle  and  Langland,  133. 

Service,  ideal  of,  influenced  by  Bible,  265, 

Shairp,  Principal,  on  ctilture  and  religion,  240. 

Shakespeare,  William.  Historian  Green  on  genius  of,  22. 
Witnessed  miracle  plays  at  Coventry,  118.  Used  Genevan 
Version,  149.  Shakespeare '-s  England  was  biblical,  156.  His 
home  life,  companionship  with  the  Bible,  158.  His  eager 
contact  and  easy  familiarity,  159,  160.  Mind  saturated,  160. 
Air  of  finality,  161.  Ignoring  his  dependence  on  Bible,  161. 
Uses  Scripture  for  allusion  and  reference,  162,  163.  Weaves 
it  into  his  narrative,  163,  164.  Favorite  biblical  illustrations, 
164,  165.  Extended  use,  165,  166.  Use  of  historical  facts, 
166.  His  plots,  167.  Reference  to  redemption  involves 
doctrine,  167,  168.  Profound  influence  of  Bible  in  his  ruling 
ideas.  Providence,  168.  Sin,  Conscience,  Penalty,  169,  170. 
On  the  side  of  morality,  170.  The  Cardinal  Wolsey  passage, 
171.  Tone  and  coloring  of  Scripture,  171.  Twelve  hundred 
references,  172.     On  Sin,  248,  249. 

Shelley,  P.  B.,  an  undeveloped  Christian,  241. 

Skeat,  Prof,  on  Langland's  sublime  description  of  Christ's 
death,  137. 

Social  reformation  and  the  Bible,  265. 

Soul,  attitude  of  literature  toward,  biblical,  268. 

Spenser,  Edmund,  moral  earnestness  and  spirituality,  157. 

SpirituaHty  in  life  traced  to  Bible,  33.  Spiritual  touch  in 
Chaucer's  characteristics,  128,     Of  poets,  218. 

Sterne,  Laurence,  his  famous  "biblical"  sentence.  Mind  satu- 
rated.    Two  kinds  of  eloquence,  202,  203. 

Stevens,  Thaddeus,  use  of  Bible  in  public  speech,  199. 

Stevenson,  R.  L.,  Dr.  JekyU  and  Mr.  Hyde,  215. 

Stowe,  Mrs.  H.  B.,  on  biblical  atmosphere  of  New  England, 
193.     Note. 

Story-teller  as  preacher,  213. 

Streonshealh,  a  Northumbrian  abbey  fotmded  by  Hilda,  later 
Whitby,  the  home  of  Caedmon,  56. 

Stubbs,  Bishop,  frequent  quotations  from  his  The  Christ  in 
English  Poetry t  in  Chap.  VI.  on  Cynewulf.    On  relation  of 


286  INDEX 

civilization  of  eighth  century  to  Northumbrian  schools,  55. 
Also  80.     Note.     On  Langland's  picture  of  Christ,  137. 
Swinburne,  A.  C,  Saddening  lines  on  death,  251. 

Taine,  on  the  English  mind,  20.     On  Tyndale's  folios,  148. 
Ten  Brink,  on  Langland  as  predecessor  of  Milton,  134. 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  his   "Idylls  of  the  King,"  Forerunners  of 

107-109.     Translating    classics    into    "biblical    prose,"    196. 

Use  of  Bible,  219,  222,  226-231.     Christology  of,  238.     Charge 

of   pantheism,    246,    247.     On    Sin,    249,    250.     "That   one 

who  rose  again,"  252.     On  Prayer,  253,  254. 
Thackeray,  W.  M.,  exposes  hypocrisy,  249. 
Thanet,  Isle  of,  England  begins  here,  35. 
Theodore  of  Tarsus,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  58. 
Transcendentalism  of  literature.     Relation  to  faith,  259. 

Unseen,  The,  effect  of  this  biblical  element  on  literature,  257- 
260.  Discipline  of  the  Invisible,  257.  Writers  under  same 
spell  of  the  Unseen,  258,  260.     Faith  and  imagination,  259. 

Van  Dyke,  Henry,  References  to  his  volume  The  Poetry  of 
Tennyson  in  Chap.  XVII.     On  Christianity  and  the  writers, 

251. 

Versions  of  the  Bible  in  English.  Vernaculars  long  delayed,  142. 
Wyclif's  version  epoch-making,  143.  Rendered  a  literary 
as  well  as  religious  service,  145.  Tyndale's  version,  146-148. 
Coverdale's,  148.  Also  Note.  Great  Bible,  148,  149.  Gen- 
evan Bible,  149.  Incident  at  coronation  of  Elizabeth,  149, 
150.  Popular  enthusiasm  described  by  Green,  150,  151. 
King  James  Version,  152.  Tributes  by  Faber,  Prof.  Cook, 
Froude,  Wordsworth,  Huxley,  152-154.  Strategy  of,  155, 
156.  Many  editions  in  Elizabeth's  time,  178.  Effects  of 
Authorized  Version  on  style,  196,  197. 

Virgin  Mary  in  early  poetry,  Cynewulf,  69,  70. 

Vulgate,  long  sway  of.  Importance  of,  142,  143.  Also  143. 
Note. 

Walton,  Isaak,  use  of  Bible,  204. 

Warner,  C.  D.,  on  place  of  Bible  in  New  England,  232. 

Watts-Dunstan,  on  biblical  poetry,  218. 


INDEX  287 

Wearmouth  and  Jarrow,  twin  monasteries  founded  by  Benedict 

Biscop,  80. 
West,  Prof.  A.  F.,  References  to  his  Alcuin  and  the  Rise  of  the 

Christian  Schools  in  Chap.  VIII.     Especially  his  description 

of  Palace  School,  83. 
Weston,  Miss  Jessie  L.,  her  ritual  theory  of  the  Holy  Grail, 

105.     Note. 
Whitby,  monastery  of,  the  home  of  Caedmon,  56.    Spared  in 

Danish  invasions,  91. 
Whittier,  John,  use  of  Bible,  233,  234. 
"Widsith,"  eariy  poetry  in  England,  23. 
Wilfrid  of  York.     His  "Golden  Gospels,"  55. 
Wilson,  Woodrow,  use  of  Bible  in  public  speech,  201. 
Women,  Chaucer's  estimate  of,  biblical,  127. 
Wonder,  biblical,  in  literature,  261,  262.     Spirit  of  friendly  to 

worship,  267. 
Wordsworth,  William.     Passage  from  "Ecclesiastical  Sonnets" 

on  Bede,  78.     On  King  Alfred,  90.     On  influence  of  Bible  as 

staple  food,  181. 
Worship,   discipline   in,    265.     Spirit   of   wonder   in   literature 

friendly  to,  267. 
Writers,    different   attitudes   towards   religion,    240.    Religion 

asserts  itself,   241,   242.     Indebtedness   of   chiu-ch   to,   244. 

Realize  the  Presence,  245.     Deal  with  fact,  not  doctrine,  of 

sin,    248.     Deal    inadequately    with    atonement,    250.     Dr. 

van  Dyke  on  service  of  writers,   251.     Under  spell  of  the 

Unseen,  258-260.     Promoters  of  ideahsm  of  faith,  259,  260. 
Wyclif,  John,  his  English  version,  143  seq.     Rendered  a  literary 

as  well  as  religious  service,  145.     His  age  a  new  era,  146. 

York,  school  of,  founded  by  Egbert,  80. 


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